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THE POLISH MINI). 



THE LEGEND OF PRZYIEMSJtt S RACK, AN HISTORICAL POEM OF 

THE TIME OF KINO JOHN III. (SOBIESKI.) — PASSAGES FROM 

THE HUNGARIAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE OF 1848-9. 

MUSTNGS OF AN EXILE. 



I 

CpLCLYEL .1. PRZYIEMSKI, 

Member of the polish lijistorinl 3Us.ocurtum of ¥onbon. 



I 



L O.NDON : 
WILLIAM & FREDERICK G. CASH, 

6, BISHOPSGATR WITHOUT. 
1857. 



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II 4 



SKETCHES 



THE POLISH MIND. 



THE LEGEND OF PKZTIEMSKI S RACE, AN HISTORICAL POEM OF 

THE TIME OF KING JOHN III. (SOBIESKI.) — PASSAGES FROM 

THE HUNGARIAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE OF 1848-9. 

MUSINGS OF AN EXILE. 



COLONEL J. PRZYIEMSKI, 

$zmhzx of % Ipclxs^ Siataraai Qunanvfium of ymttom. 

' NEW YORK, N. Y, 

J.IBRARL 

LONDON: 
WILLIAM & FKEDEKICK G. CASH, 

5, BISHOPSGATE WITHOUT. 

1857. 








I 



1 396 N 

9 JUL 1953 



DEDICATION. 



CIj* f njiaKtmtfc of f sakrfo, 

ONCE MY SUBJECTS, STILL I HOPE MY FRIENDS : 

TO 

®|e §mrb of % rifo txkx §nieste t 

WHERE MY DAUGHTER WAS BORN : 

TO 

C|e tofan of Canrnpol, 

IN WHOSE CASTLE I FIRST SAW THE LIGHT, AND WHERE MY 
MOTHER RESIDES : 

THESE SIGHS OE THE HEART ARE DEDICATED 

BY 

J. P. 



" Cum subit illius tristissimae noetis imago, 
Qiias mihi supremum tempus in urbe fuit ; 
Cum repeto noctem, qua tot mihi cara reliqui; 
Labitur ex oculis nunc quoque gutta meis." 

Oted. 





NtW YOKK, N. Y f 
LIBRARY 






CONTENTS. 



Preface 
Introduction 



PAGE. 

vii 
xiv 



PAET I. 

WHAT I HAVE READ. 

Chapter I. — To a Drowsy Friend 1 

Chapter II. — The Introduction of the German Knights 

into Poland 2 

Chapter III. — On Party Spirit .... 3 

Chapter IV. — We want but Union .... 4 

Chapter V. — The Slavonian League against the Germans 6 
Chapter VI. — The Extinction of the League . , .11 

Chapter VII. — Alexander Przyiemski's last Will . 14 



PAET II. 

EVENTS IN WHICH I HAVE TAKEN PART, AND OF 
WHICH I HAVE BEEN AN EYEWITNESS. 

Chapter I . . .21 

Chapter II 22 

Chapter III. 24 

Chapter IV 25 

Chapter V 28 

Chapter VL \ 29 



VI CONTENTS. 

• PAGE 

Chapter VII. — A Conversation in the Hungarian Camp 35 

Chapter VIII 40 

Chapter IX 50 

Epilogue 61 

To Prince Wladislaus (a Letter, 1856) . . 63 
A Welcome to the Daughter of Colonel Lach-Szyrma 

into Devonport 66 

PAET III. 

MUSINGS OF AN EXILE. 

To England 69 

Prayer . . . . . • . . 70 

Over the Styx (a Fable) . 71 

My Darling 74 

To my Mother .76 

Not as at Home ....... 78 

The Eagle and the Parrot .80 

Ask Not 82 

Fragment .'.'." 83 

Misunderstanding wounds the Heart ♦ 84 

A Farewell Word to the Eeader 86 

Appendix I . 91 

Appendix II. ....-., 109 



PREFACE. 



" Similis simili gaudet." — Proverb* 

Sooner or later England must either join part- 
nership with Eussia, in the government of Europe, 
on a system analogous to that of the East India 
Company, so congenial to the favourite wishes of 
the Czar ; or the magnanimous instincts of her 
people will prevail over the selfish suggestions of 
men, English in name, but un-English in meanness 
of spirit and short-sighted policy, and will make 
use of the strength of her civilization against bar- 
barism ; of her wealth obtained by industry, against 
poverty existing in spite of oppression, robbery, 
and the incurring of debts ; of her stability of 
government, based on the love of the nation for a 
noble Queen, against the Colossus on straw feet, # 
kept upon them merely by cruel tyranny, while the 
volcano of the racked nations' despair is mining 
the ground beneath it. The nation which con- 
quered at "Waterloo, will, for the benefit of mankind, 
do away with Eussian preponderance — the over- 
bearing power of the nation vanquished at Moscow . 

* This is a name given by the Poles to Russia. 



Till PREFACE. 

England, by means of sound diplomacy, more effec- 
tual than any appeal to arms, must do away with 
Eussia, and would thus receive the thanks of 
Europe for a durable peace, based on firm and just 
constitutional government throughout its several 
countries. The just influence of England cannot 
exist in the same hemisphere as that of Eussia ; 
since night and day, freedom and thraldom, a 
conquest-seeking and war-breathing tyrant, and a 
commercial, just and peaceable people, are utterly 
irreconcileable. Twilight is but the wrestling of 
two contrary powers ; for moments they may seem 
to blend, but finally they part for the antipodes ; 
and when day and summer brighten the vales of 
Europe, night and winter brood over the plains of 
Australia. England must extinguish Eussia, or 
become her partner in the spoils of Europe, and 
her imitator at home ; for either constitutional 
government or despotic misrule will eventually 
prevail. 

Those who have keen eyes and observant minds 
for national feelings and politics, and who are 
acquainted with the past history of Poland, and 
her former position in Europe as a bulwark against 
despotism, will not for a moment doubt that by her 
restoration alone can England impose an effectual 
check upon Eussia. "Whether such a check on 



PREFACE. IX 

Muscovite ferocity is needed, is there any room to 
question ? Ask the annals of the Spanish Inquisition 
by what diabolical contrivances the bodies of its 
victims were enabled to endure such fearful tortures, 
and still live on for the final agony of the stake. 
Ask the Czar how the ukase is worded which pro- 
vides that not one of so many thousands condemned 
to receive from five hundred to three thousand 
lashes each, should escape by death from enduring 
the full number. Knowing the amount of blood 
which the moral and physical frame may lose 
without losing vitality also, the Czar to-day, no 
less than the Inquisition in past times, contrives 
to wring out the full measure. 

But whether England become the sun of peace 
and freedom to Europe, or the moon-like satellite 
revolving round the earth where Russia reigns, it 
is important for her to become acquainted with the 
character of a nation, destined either to be her 
partner in pacifying and re-organising Europe, or 
the victim of her victorious lion in the sordid com- 
pany of the spread eagle. 

But too long has the voice of the Polish exile 
kept the English ear : let the naturalized English- 
man say a word of English business to his adopted 
countrymen : let us meet on common ground. 
England is the best organized, the wealthiest, the 



X PREFACE. 

most powerful, and the happiest country of Europe : 
wherefore, then, the cry of its people for reform ? 
What has hindered these reforms from already 
having existence ? War ! the enemy of civilisation, 
the destroyer of commerce, the deceiver of nations 
languishing in slavery, who cling to it ; war, whose 
motto is " Inter arma silent leges." 

Whence comes the storm which brings the 
thunderbolt of war ? Look into the clouds of 
darkness overhanging Europe ; in the midst of them 
you will perceive a two-headed monster throwing 
bribes to all who will take them, and to those who 
will not, speaking the language of the serpent. 
Eor ages one of his heads has been turned toward 
France ; saying to her, " Mistrust the British lion ; 
when he shows you a friendly face, he longs to have 
your lilies for himself, he looks out for an opportu- 
nity to devour your cock, a wave of his mighty tail 
will destroy your bee-hives." The other head is 
turned toward the British lion, while he thus warns 
him : " Beware of friendship with those on the other 
side of the water ; their royal lilies contain poison 
to destroy thee, their republican cock crows treason 
and envy against thee, their imperial bees will sting 
thee." Meanwhile his covetous eye is fixed on India, 
where the Muscovite spirit of the Company's 
government prepares the way for the Czar, who at 



PEEP ACE. XI 

the first rumour of the Anglo-French alliance tried 
to oppose it with the paltry power of a despot, till, 
smarting with the blow that rewarded his fruitless 
efforts, he retreated to hide the mark of it beneath the 
jewels of his coronation, cowed, but not conquered ; 
suffering, but nursing thoughts of speedy revenge ; 
speaking, through Gkxrczakow's lips, the language of 
one who feels himself unvanquished ; and, almost 
before the ink of his written treason has had time to 
dry, plotting against those who from love of peace 
spared his country. Soon England will again be 
compelled to make preparations for war ; again the 
exchequer will be charged, not to provide schools, or 
to aid in salutary reforms, but for the hiring of 
Germans to fight for England, or to guard her while 
her people fight abroad. Again the English must 
put a stop to the consideration of the internal affairs 
of the nation for debates on the war : again, English 
hands, instead of working at home to increase the 
wealth and power of their blessed land, will be em- 
ployed in campaigns, of which the fruit will be lost 
by a false move of the pen. 

Oh, Englishmen, it was a political blunder to 
enter upon the war just terminated ; but, the sword 
once drawn, it was a crime to sheathe it so untimely, 
after having directed it to the wrong place in com- 
pany with comrades unlike yourselves, bragging of 
fight, but plundering under the shelter of your arms ! 



Xil PREFACE. 

England, beware of the evil policy of half- 
measures, of bad company in a noble walk. Either 
join the chief robber, without associating with his 
subordinates, or call upon the name of an oppressed 
brother, and the very sound of thy voice will rouse 
the fainting one and break the yoke of the tyrant. 

History, if not falsified by the personal feelings 
of the historian, or perverted for political aims, 
tells us facts as they were — as God permitted them ; 
but it is only through legends and poetry that we 
can ascertain how nations have understood them — 
how they wished them to have happened. It is the 
literature of a people that is the reflection of its 
mind. 

Full of the thought that, for England's political 
prosperity, an acquaintance with the literature of 
Poland is important; I propose undertaking the 
translation of a series of Polish characteristic 
literary works, and commence my task with the 
following essay, which though in English scarcely 
answering to the appellation of " song," has lost 
its poetic garb merely through translation ; a neces- 
sary change, since there is so little analogy between 
the two languages. 

The brevity of the first few chapters is explained 
by the fact that they are simply designed as chro- 
nological steps, leading, to use a figure of speech, 
down to the hall of the poem. 



PKEFACE. Xlll 

It has been written in England, where the war- 
like spirit of the writer has been softened by truly 
Christian influences among the Society of Friends ; 
it has no excitement for war for its aim, but, on the 
contrary, shows its terrible consequences, and de- 
monstrates the sources of it in the want of religious 
training on the one hand, and tyranny on the other. 
But though the writer has learnt in happy England 
to look for help more to God than to arms, his 
thoughts, heavy with the fetters of Poland, cling 
to earth, causing the conviction, that, while the 
Almighty can by a single word cause light to be, 
he may yet also be pleased to ordain that the 
trumpets of war should sound before the gentler 
voice of his mercy is heard; "Naturam furca 
expellas." 



INTRODUCTION. 



" Si qua meis fuerint, ut erunt, vitiosa libellis ; 
Excusata suo tempore, lector habe. 
Exul eram ; requiesque mini, non fama, petita est ; 
Mens intenta suis ne foret usque malis. 
Hoc est, cur cantet vinctus quoque compede fossor." 
Ovidius : Trist. lib. iv. eleg. 1. 

Poland, placed on the border of civilized Europe, 
screened it for centuries from the firebrands of the 
Mussulman, and sheltered it from the blast of 
Muscovite barbarism and the footprints of crushing 
despotism. Though her people, naturally peaceable 
and poetic, were inclined to agriculture, yet their 
patriotism and their love of liberty, their position 
in Europe, and their social relation to the Slavonian 
family — standing as it were at its fireside — alike 
compelled them to become a warlike nation. They 
were surrounded by foes : in the van appeared 
Mahomet and the Czar, with their religious and 
political heresies ; in the rear was the German race, 
calling itself the holy Eomish- German empire, led 
by its holy Bomish-German Emperor, in partner- 
ship with the holy father the Pope of Rome, all 



XVI INTRODUCTION. 

threatening Europe with their joint-stock preten- 
sions to supremacy and universal despotism, re- 
quiring blind obedience in spiritual and temporal 
matters, and bent upon the destruction of the 
Slavonic races in particular. The Poles, though 
loving their kings with a loyalty equal to that of 
Englishmen now, as distinguished from other 
European nations — among whom the word has 
either become obsolete, or is used as another term 
for the base flattery of courtiers — yet took good 
care to spare them the temptation of becoming 
unworthy of that love, and suffered no standing 
army, which is only ruinous to the national finances, 
and the tool of despots in power, or pretending to 
it, (for blind obedience is the " conditio sine qua 
non" of a well-disciplined army) ; neither did they 
keep foreign hirelings, considering them as they 
did a nursery of deserters in the field, and as the 
Pandora box of corruption of manners when in 
garrison in time of peace ; but, with hearts beating 
with love to God, with mankind for their armour, 
and with duty for their banner, they fought their 
battles themselves — the battles of the Slavonians, 
of Europe, and of Christendom. The sacrifice of 
property and life became the first privilege of the 
Polish nobleman, who, fighting at his own private 
expense, under the personal leadership of his ting, 
saw more of his horse than of his home, and had 



INTRODUCTION. XY11 

his sabre at his side oftener than his wife and chil- 
dren. 

Considering themselves and their possessions as 
public property, the people of Poland styled her a 
republic ; but, as their national good sense made 
them feel that, under such circumstances, one 
leading hand, covered with the glove of majesty, 
and able to rule and fight simultaneously, was an 
absolute necessity, they elected a king by unani- 
mous consent ; and thus Poland was for ages at 
once a kingdom from its form of government, and 
a republic in the freedom of its institutions and 
the Spartan virtue of its inhabitants. And here I 
would repeat, that, while other nations fought 
merely at the caprice of their kings, the Poles 
became a warlike people purely from political 
necessity, and from love of duty. 

England — surrounded with seas, and unruffled by 
the storms that shook the rest of Europe — has had 
time to ripen in its national politics more than any 
other nation. After having fought her own internal 
battles, through which every rising nation must 
pass, as every individual must go through certain 
infantile diseases, she was undisturbed by Europe 
in making experiment of the protectorship of 
Cromwell, in recrowning the Stuarts, in expelling 
them and the Eomish superstitions together, 
and in choosing a new dynasty suited to her wants 
and desires. Her people have arrived at the happy 

I 



XV111 IKTE0DUCTI01S'. 

possibility of sitting at ease in their armchairs, 
and reading of war in the newspapers ; and, unless 
by their own particular desire, or by a political 
blunder of their government, have no need to 
meddle with arms, except for raising funds to 
manufacture them for other nations, driven by 
despots and despair into the field of battle. Even 
if evil associates delude England into fancying 
war an agreeable sport, only those enrol themselves 
in her army who choose to do so, and these consist 
of two classes only — the lowest orders of the people, 
who enlist for pay ; and those members of the 
aristocracy, who, distrusting their capabilities of 
distinguishing themselves in parliament or civil 
employment, prefer to buy a commission. So that 
in England to be a soldier is not a privilege, but 
merely a choice of business. 

Eor centuries Russia's intrigues succeeded in 
deceiving England's kings and people into the idea 
that Erance, its natural ally, should be considered as 
a jealous rival and deadly enemy ; the ripened na- 
tional good sense got rid of it, (as it will I hope of 
many other things,) and though, unhappily, England 
mistook Buonaparte the Third for Erance, alliance 
for an obligation in joining him in an impolitic and 
hypocritical war ; yet by this she has learnt the 
invaluable lesson, that patriotism may consist in 
love of peace no less than in valour — that, while in 



INTRODUCTION. XIX 

case of national necessity there will be no want of 
heroic minds and gallant arms to defend her fire- 
sides, Nelsons and Wellingtons are not to be 
obtained by appointment of Downing Street — that, 
though great and powerful, she is not a warlike 
nation, and her mission is not to help despots to 

" Play such fantastic tricks before high Heaven 
" As make the angels weep ;" 

but to set Europe the example of liberty and order, 
based on commerce, industry and religion. 

Language is the mirror of the heart no less than 
of the intellect ; hence the spirit of every language 
necessarily bears the impress of national feelings 
and necessities, and thus arises the true difference 
of idioms. It is difficult to translate into the lan- 
guage of a happy, free, and commercial people, that 
of one agonized, oppressed, and warlike — Polish into 
English. Therefore, reader, if thou art looking for 
literary pleasure only, throw away at once a work 
which with such an object in view is less than 
mediocre. But, if the remembrance that we are 
told to love even our enemies, awake a desire to 
know something of those who look upon England 
as a future friend in need — if the thought that of 
them to whom much is given much will be required, 
give rise to the conviction that, while the republic 
of San Marino, with less public and private wealth 
than one second-class banker in London ; Turkey, 



XX INTRODUCTION. 

more powerless than ever was England, even in the 
miserable times of Roman invasion ; Prance, with 
scarcely more freedom than the prisoners at 
Newgate ; have no power to promote the reign of 
justice, liberty and religion among other nations ; 
God requires higher duties from thy happier 
country — if, I say, these thoughts make thy heart 
beat with earnest sympathy and national pride, 
then the following lines, unfolding and illustrating 
as they do the Polish character, will have at least 
some attraction for thee, as an Englishman, as a 
politician, and as a well-wisher to mankind. Even 
the sketch of superstitions and errors, following in 
the wake of despotism and persecution, and leading 
a nation worthy of a better fate to unbelief and 
despair, may not be uninteresting as contrasted 
with English freedom in the choice of a mode of 
worshiping God, and of ruling the various depart- 
ments of the country. 

The writer would fain express himself in better 
arranged words, but has too much trust in the often 
experienced indulgence he has met with during his 
five years' stay in England (whose naturalized son 
he feels happy to be) to lay down his awkward pen, 
and by his love and loyalty alike for the land of 
his birth as for that of his refuge, he would fain be 
the herald of sympathy between them — between 
Poland, warlike through the crimes of men, and 
England, peace-loving by the Grace of God. 



PART I. 

WHAT I HAVE EEAD. 



CHAPTER I. 

TO A DROWSY FRIEND. 

" II faut des lauriers aux heros." — Pamy. 

Drowsy thou art and dost not blush for it. Is 
it thy mind or thy heart that sleeps ? Methinks 
it will be vain to sing to thee of the deeds of thy 
fathers — those monuments of our earlier glory — for 
though of their race, thou art not of their mind ; 
and, lost in careless apathy, thou hast become in- 
different alike to the laurels of fame and to the 
flowers of chivalry. But before I crush my lute, I 
will wander through the length and breadth of my 
Fatherland, bewailing her fate ; and will not suffer 
my hopes to be silenced, nor my faith in mankind 
to fail, till I have convinced myself that a song of 
Poland has no longer any power to arouse Polish 
thoughts, and ceases even to awake a sigh. 

B 



SKETCHES 0E THE POLISH MIND. 



CHAPTEE II. 

THE INTRODUCTION OE THE GERMAN KNIGHTS INTO 
POLAND. 

" La force injuste et des lauriers sans gloire." 

Les Rosecroix : Parny. 

Conrad of Mazowia introduced into Poland the 
German knights, to assist her in fighting against 
the heathen. With the intention of benefiting 
his country, he irreparably injured her by cherish- 
ing in his bosom a serpent that poisoned for ages 
her faith, and exhausted her by wars, robberies, 
and exactions; blighting the good sense of the 
nation with Romish- German prejudices, and ruin- 
ing their politics through intrigues with the 
German Emperors and the Popes. 

But well does every son and daughter of Poland 
know the history and the misfortunes of those 
times. I will not, therefore, sing either of the 
woes which racked, nor of the heroism which en- 
nobled her, in the days following upon the introduc- 
tion of those fatal knights of the German order ; 
but will tune my lyre to another, and, alas ! a yet 
sadder strain. 



LEGEND OF PEZTIEMSKI S RACE. 3 

CHAPTEE III. 

ON PARTY SPIRIT. 

" Quid juvat errorem mersa jam puppe fateri ; 
Quid lachrymsB delicta levant ? " 

In Eutropium : Claudian. 

Poland, though still breathing, is laid in a three- 
fold grave. Thousands of her people wear the sable 
dress of orphans, and her warriors pine in exile, or 
perish in dungeons. But those who survive, cease 
not, in spite of all their sufferings, to hope, to long, 
and to look upward and around them, to Q-od and 
to their fellow-men, for aid for their country, while 
working for her restoration ; would that truth did 
not compel me to add, that foreign influences hinder 
our fatherland from profiting by the martyrdom of 
its children ! "Whilst gathering herbs for a healing 
draught for Mother Poland, the Pole met with the 
poisonous weed of wrongly understood democracy, 
growing luxuriously on the banks of the Seine, and 
culled the bitter leaves which had already wrought so 
much evil in their native land, to the misery and woe 
of her he sought to cure. In the despair occasioned 
by her sufferings, she swallowed the noxious potion ; 
contrary prejudices were called into life, the pos- 

b 2 



4 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

sessors of which — false prophets indeed ! — prophesy 
Poland's salvation by so-called sympathising 
governments ; for the spirit of disunion, under the 
mask of would-be democratic associations, after 
having blown up the exiles' stronghold of unison, 
has not only loaded the national tumulus with scat- 
tered wrecks of political parties, but has quickened 
the firebrands of pretensions, almost cooled beneath 
the ashes of time, and, deceiving the weak-minded 
and dividing the sincere, has caused grief at home, 
and gives rise to ill-feeling amongst the exiles. 
Thus have our own sins kept back our salvation. 



CHAPTEE IV. 

WE WANT BUT UNION. 

" But oh, vain judgment and conditions vaine, 
The which the prisoner points to the free." 

Faerie Queen. 

The evil spirit of Gurowski's race # extended to 
its later scions. His name has been stamped with 
infamy by our ancestors. At the time of the par- 

* Gurowski, the name of a Polish noble family distingiiished 
in their fatherland in ancient times. During the partition of 
Poland, the head of the family forsook the traditional virtues 
of his race, and even rendered assistance to the three allied 



LEGEND OE PBZYIEMSKTS EACE. 5 

tition of Poland, his offspring aided our oppressors, 
with fratricidal hands, in pouring the poison of 
envy into the hearts of unfortunate brothers, and 
sharpening the knives for the bloodbath of Gralieia, 
in 1846. The grandson's treason was of a deeper 
dye than the perfidy of the grandsire : he organized 
a Cain's league. 

It is in vain to call plots such as these, bonds of 
brotherhood; for there is no bond where love is 
wanting, and egotists have no brothers. The forged 
name can only delude fools, and fails to mask the 
baseness of purpose. 

Poland requires no other bond but that of faith, 
hope and love : union would make her invincible, 
but party spirit weakens her. In olden times the 
Poles organized leagues ; before the remembrance 
of them vanishes, I will siug to you of one in 
the reign of good King Jagiello and of Hedwig his 
lovely queen. 

cowards. His great-grandchild, Adam Gurowski, was the 
founder of the so-called centralization in Paris, (17th of March, 
1832,) which gave rise to party spirit among the exiles. The 
name sounds now in the Polish ear like a remembrance of pain. 



6 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

CHAPTEE V. 

THE SLAVONIAN LEAGUE AGAINST THE GEBMANS. 

" Cum feris bestiis res est." — Q. Curtius. 

This was not a league of the lower classes against 
their betters, nor one of servants in the pay of a 
powerful family, like those of the present day ; it 
was not against fellow-countrymen, but against a 
common foe. 

Jagiello's first and most anxious care was to bind 
together Lithuania and Poland with ties of sisterly 
love, so durable, though soft, that they could not be 
severed either by the sword of misfortune or the 
weight of neighbouring despotism. Poland felt 
happy in the possession of such a king ; but she was 
not destined to enjoy this happiness undisturbed. 

The rapacity of the German knights grew to 
open rebellion against their liege and king; they 
fired and put to the sword towns and villages, for 
the service of which they were hired by a grant of 
lands. Their secret plots undermined Poland, and 
the power and ill-got riches of the hirelings 
grew to such a pitch, that their hirers dared not 
reprove them openly ; for while the fickle-minded 
Pope condemned and protected them by turns, the 



LEGEND OE PBZTIEMSKI S EACE. 7 

German Emperors plotted with them constantly, 
and, under pretence of protecting their country- 
men, interfered in Polish politics. But in olden 
times the welfare of their dear country was wont 
to fill the hearts of our ancestors, leaving no room 
for other considerations. 

Thepatriots, seeing that Emperor and Pope (whose 
influence entangled the whole of Europe in the nets 
of St. Peter) were easily to be bribed by the armed 
monks and an army of their countrymen, always 
ready to be hired, united skill with virtue, called 
the Polish and Lithuanian nobles to assemble in a 
secret parliament, and sent ambassadors to all the 
Slavonian nations, whose men of fame and standing 
hastened to join the common cause. Among them 
was Ziszka, the follower of John Huss, and the 
apostle and hero of Prague. 

He advised them with all his heart to act in con- 
cert against the common enemy of the Slavonian 
race, and promised to lead his followers wherever 
the music of a sword clashing death to the Ger- 
mans should delight his ears. "With tears standing 
in his single eye, and rolling from the empty socket 
of the lost one, he embraced all the Poles, recom- 
mending them fidelity to God and to their country, 
and exhorting them to be the nucleus of the Sla- 
vonian league against the rapacious and bigoted 



8 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

Germans. He insisted upon Jagiello's being 
chosen chief of this now sworn confederation, 
which made it binding upon all, as well individually 
as collectively, to cleanse their countries from this 
intolerable scourge of foreign parasites. The good 
King Jagiello was proud and happy to accept this 
proof of trust in him and in Poland. He called 
the whole of the nobility of Lithuania and Poland 
to arms without delay. Ziszka joined them imme- 
diately, leading the Bohemians and Moravians. 
The neighbouring Tartars hastened at the first 
news of war against the swordbearing priests, 
whose treachery they had but too often experienced, 
and the victory won at the battle of Grunwald 
(equal in importance with that of Leipsic in later 
times) was the first glorious deed of the Slavonian 
League recorded in the page of history. 

The current of Europe's destiny was turned by 
the laurels of Grunwald, which formed a dam 
against the Germans' hankering after supremacy. 
The weed of priesthood dealing in arms, if not 
entirely rooted out, lost at least the power of its 
poison, and Poland became the lighthouse of the 
Slavonian waters, with Europe's eye turned toward 
it in awe and admiration. 

And here the proud beatings of my heart will not 
allow me to remain silent on the fact that the 



LEGEND OP PBZYIEMSKl'S EACE. 9 

G-riinwald field of glory was the grave of two Przyi- 
emskis, who fell there, leading our nobility to die 
for Poland's freedom under the eyes of their beloved 
ting, who himself scarcely escaped death, sheltered 
by Zbigniew Olesnicki's broken lance from the deadly 
blow of the Grand Master's sacrilegious sword, aimed 
at the head of his liege lord. Ziszka, who had but 
just formed a friendship with the two brothers 
Przyiemski, dismounted to console them in their 
last moments with the remembrance of the Heavenly 
King, who rewards the sacrifice of life for freedom ; 
while their earthly monarch, Jagiello, could but 
bewail the departed heroes, and cause them to be 
buried on the spot where they expired. 

God of my ancestors ! this double- winged prayer 
rises to thy feet. Let thy mercy look upon their 
motives, if thou approvest not the taking of arms 
even in such a holy cause ; otherwise permit me too, 
oh God of armies, to die for Poland, sword in 
hand! 

Te false apostles of the mistaken creed of equality, 
preached by the French revolutionists, consider ! 
Since the dead letter of history, mentioning our 
ancestors' glorious names, exalts the mind — since 
the age of the tree dignifies its branches and covers 
them with leaves of readiness for sacrifice — since 
mention of the fathers excites noble thoughts in the 
sons, ought not you, and the mob of turncoats, your 



10 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

neophites, rather to raise your hands to the Lord of 
lords in prayer, to prop the ancient stem, than to 
seize the hatchet of murder against those who, by 
God's will, and because of their own public merits, 
are your betters ? Ought you not to join them in 
cleansing the tree from poisonous insects, instead 
of introducing them there? Be noble in your 
deeds, leave noble remembrances to your sons, and 
envy will soon find you deaf to its spiteful sugges- 
tions. If our family chronicles have leaves of laurel 
for us, they are at once charters of high and diffi- 
cult duties, obliging us to keep step with those 
from whom we are proud to descend. Do the same; 
supply the book of history with illustrations of your 
virtue ; make yourselves distinguished and you will 
be considered so, and your children will rejoice to 
sing your justly-earned praises. 

Closed for a time is Poland's book in Europe's 
wormeaten bookcase ; the finger of the law cannot 
now point you out the line where Poland rewards 
with old coats of arms recent noble deeds ; but the 
precious volume is preserved in our hearts, in the 
ever sound edition of the public conscience : there- 
fore, once more, I repeat, be noble, and, as a grate- 
ful acknowledgment of your countrymen, you will 
receive the title of brother in the book of heraldry 
kept by our hearts, for those who share, like 
brothers, our sacrifices and our dangers. 



nlW YUHK, N. Y, 
JJBRARY 



LEGEND OE PRZTIEMSKI'S EACE. 11 

CHAPTEE VI. 

THE EXTINCTION OE THE LEAGUE. 

" Sad are the woes that wreck thy manly form." 

Pleasures of Hope, 

The lightning of the league pierced the clouds 
of darkness which, through the German Order, 
gathered over Poland's political horizon. The 
power of those unworthy priests was effectually 
broken ; but the league continued to be in force 
till the time of King Michael. 

Little dreamed Michael Wisnowiecki, when a 
youth entering the league, that soon from the 
throne of Poland a German king would commu- 
nicate by dumb show with the Polish people ; little 
thought our forefathers (ever ready to love their 
kings) at the beginning of this Saxon pantomime, that 
11 the Saxon princes would but accustom the sober 
Poles to hard drinking," as history and the proverb 
relate. Soon was the wrong forgotten and blotted 
out from the Polish heart, which scorns revenge ; 
the reason of its grief removed, it was found ready 
to pardon and open to love. This shortened the 
duration of the league, its enemy becoming smooth 
when without power to do harm ; and when 



12 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

John III. succeeded Michael to the Polish crown, 
the once powerful confederation existed only in 
name. Its few remaining members protested, in a 
bold and manly speech, to the ting — who was just 
preparing to march to the relief of Vienna, besieged 
by the Turks — reminding him that it was his duty 
to fight the Germans rather than to help them, 
since he was a Polish king and not a German 
captain ; to which the king answered, that his duty 
as a Christian demanded of him this homage to 
the cross. He was just mounting his horse to take 
the head of the Polish army — for our kings led their 
troops in person — when Alexander Przyiemski, one 
of the deputed members of the league, presented 
him with the charter of the oath, which the king 
had sworn upon the crucifix and signed with his 
hand and seal when joining the league. The 
monarch replied to him thus : " My lord and 
brother, the crucifix now and ever is my leader. It 
is not to help the Germans that I leave Warsaw, 
but to vie with them as to who shall most effectually 
defend the faith of our fathers — the faith of Christ. 
And such is the will of the holy father of Home, 
expressed through his ambassador, the Count 
Wiltschek, who was sent to beg me for help; 
otherwise the Emperor would have entreated me in 
vain." 



LEGEND OE PEZYIEMSKl's EACE. 13 

Thus the intrigues of Vienna, in partnership 
with those of Rome, dug the grave of Poland with 
the swords of her own sons ; and here ends the 
history of the Slavonian league against the Ger- 
mans, which lasted from the time of good King 
Jagiello to the accession of Saxon princes to the 
Polish throne. The remaining members resolved 
not to enrol any new ones, and spent the remainder 
of their lives at their own firesides, refusing to take 
part in any public business. Though the king had 
acted contrary to his oath, they remained faithful 
to theirs, and prayed God that he would permit 
future events to falsify their forebodings, that this 
expedition of King John to Vienna would prove a 
stab more in Poland's heart. Alas! the dearly 
bought fame won by it to the Polish name, and 
crying shame upon the Germans' ingratitude, shows 
how love of country sometimes supplies the place 
of the spirit of prophecy. But the world listens to 
power alone, and not to merit and virtue : the fame 
of Poland in the service of Christendom and of 
Europe, may cry itself hoarse ; her sister nations are 
deaf from egotism ; her tears excite only the sneers 
of the Germans, who now supply kings, and hus- 
bands for the princesses, of almost all the thrones 
of Europe. 



14 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

CHAPTEE VII. 

ALEXANDER PRZYIEMSKl'S LAST WILL. 

" The bones of the dead will rise against you." 

A Polish Poem. 

Prztema and Eawicz were, from time imme- 
morial, the domains of Przyiemski's race ; thence 
were derived their name and titles. In later 
times, during the reigns of King Michael and John 
III., Kuzmin became their chief residence. Passing 
into the hands of Germans, Kuzmin assumed the 
appearance of a bird's nest in autumn — dull, empty 
and desolate. 

A Prussian field-marshal became the lord of these 
estates ; when he first arrived and alighted at the 
castle of Kuzmin, having heard the legend of the 
grave of one of its former lords, who died more than 
one hundred years ago, he desired to see it, and 
went one morning to the church where the tomb 
stood : there he saw a silver coffin with a glass lid, 
upon a marble pedestal ; within it lay Alexander 
Przyiemski, the last lord of this name who resided 
in Kuzmin: a healthy-looking face, bristling with 
fierce moustaches, peered out of a Polish square 
cap ; his dress consisted of an upper garment of 



LEGEND OF PEZYIEMSKl'S EACE. 15 

crimson velvet, called "Kontoosh;" an underdress 
of satin of the same colour, called " Zupan," descend- 
ing to the yellow Cordovan leather boots ; a sabre, 
called " Carabella," was fastened to his belt of cloth 
of gold, the handle of which was grasped by his right 
hand, whilst his left rested on the belt. The dead 
man looked life-like — the Prussian saw it but 
scarcely believed his own eyes, and, to convince 
himself, he touched rudely with his sword the 
moustache of the corpse. Lo ! it opened its eyes, 
and cast a glance which made the German turn 
pale. As though thunderstruck, he stood for a 
moment rooted to the ground, then dropped in a 
swoon. When his followers had carried away their 
unconscious master, and he had recovered his senses 
in the castle porch, he ordered his horses imme- 
diately, without even entering the castle, and never 
returned to Kuzmin. 

After the departure of the field-marshal and 
his suite, as evening approached, curiosity gathered 
the inmates of the castle at the fireside of the old 
sexton of the church at Kuzmin, who explained 
the events of the day in the following words : — 

" My late grandfather (a nobleman, sirs, though 
in the service of another, which did him honour 
rather than anything else) was keeper of the 
wardrobe of the late Lord Alexander Przyiemski, 



16 SKETCHES OE THE POLISH MIND. 

who bore the title of Castellan.* "Well, then, in the 
time of King John III., (thus related my dear 
grandfather. I cannot remember those times, but 
you may believe it as if you had seen it with your 
own eyes ; for the dear old man gave his word of 
honour, ' and so do I,' that each word of this narra- 
tive is true,) when the King marched to the relief 
of Vienna, my Lord Alexander (on his return from 
"Warsaw) settled for good in Kuzmin ; but he never 
could enjoy himself, — never well, always sulky and 
murmuring prayers in Latin, scolding in Polish, 
and ever harping on the old theme of the king 
helping the Germans, contrary to his oath, and 
injurious to the well-being of Poland. Well, my 
Lord felt a presentiment of his approaching death, 
and wrote down his last will on the feast-day of 
the glorification of the Holy Virgin. In this will 
he bequeathed Kuzmin, with all his other estates 
and property, to the Church, to be used as monas- 
teries, on condition of returning them eventually to 
the last of his name. This last Przyiemski was 
bound, by the will, to employ all his wealth in the 
service of God, for the destruction of the German 
oppressors of Poland. ' He would be permitted,' 
thus prophesied my Lord, ' to revive through deeds 

* Castellany was one of the high Crown offices, giving to the 
bearer about the same rank as Peer of England ; but, like all 
other offices of state in Poland, was not hereditary. 



LEGEND OF PEZTIEMSKI'S RACE. 17 

of military valour the ancient splendour of his 
name, and having passed through every possible 
misfortune in his younger days, would die, well 
meriting the immortalizing of his name, through 
the gratitude of his country.' If he were mistaken, 
may God pardon him this error, and all others, if he 
had any ! Well, when my Lord had made his will, 
he ordered my grandfather and his family physician, 
whom he honoured with his particular confidence, 
to take this will, and several other documents, to 
the Prince Archbishop of G-niezno, Primate of 
Poland (whom myLord had appointed his executor), 
with instructions to pass it on to his successors. 
My Lord sent also a letter of invitation to the Pri- 
mate to come over to Kuzmin, to prepare him for his 
approaching death, and to receive his last confession. 
When my grandfather returned with the Primate 
from G-niezno, they found in Kuzmin a crowd of no- 
blemen from the neighbourhood, making the castle 
appear like an inn. My Lord, very ill, was laid in 
the great hall of the castle : the Primate hastened 
to his bedside, whilst the guests and attendants 
withdrew to the other end of the hall ; he comforted 
the dying man with the assurance of God's mercy, 
and encouraged him to join in his prayers : then, 
having heard his confession, he administered to him 
the sacrament of extreme unction. We all, the 

c 



18 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

witnesses of it, fell on our knees and heard the 
Primate, before giving absolution of sins, ask my 
Lord, ' Do you believe in God ? Do you trust in his 
mercy ? Do you pardon all your enemies and repent 
of all your sins ? My Lord answered, in a feeble 
but distinct voice — " I believe and trust in God. I 
repent of all my sins. I pardon all my enemies, 
except the enemies of my country — the Germans — 
these I never will pardon, not even in my grave !" 
The Primate finished the prayer for the dying 
without taking any notice of the exception (Could 
it have been from deafness ?), and then gave him ab- 
solution, soon after receiving which, his soul re- 
turned to its Maker. Soon there arrived at the 
castle the whole neighbourhood ; the noblemen in 
mourning, the church fraternities, the guild corpo- 
rations with their flags, and many others ; to pay the 
last honours to the dead. After the Church burial 
service, they deposited him in his present grave, 
where he has laid more than a century, resembling 
a living rather than a dead man, — with the same 
stern countenance, his forehead furrowed with his 
last thoughts, his hand ready to draw his sabre, just 
as he used to be when living ; and he has remained 
faithful to his word, even in the grave, as we, sirs, 
have witnessed this morning. May God give rest to 
his soul!" 



ETENTS OF 1848-9. 19 



PEEFACE TO THE SECOND PAET. 



" Was im gesang soil ewig leben, 
Musz im Leben untergehen." 

Schiller. 

The aim of the preceding lines is to give a 
glimpse into the political and moral prejudices, as 
well as into the hearts, of the kings, lords, and minor 
nobility of Poland. The nature of the circum- 
stances which occupy the second part of my song, 
being, in a domestic as in a political point of view, 
of private interest, I am unable to lay it before the 
public as it stands in the Polish original, but must 
content myself with giving extracts. In these ex- 
tracts, after a passing glance at the heart and home 
of an exile, are pourtrayed the spirit of the Hun- 
garian army, the appearance of Dembinski in Hun- 
gary, the heroic exploit of Ghryon at the pass of 
Branyiszko, and the apostacy of Bern. The object 
of devoting a chapter to the last-named mournful 
subject is to show that even the exalted virtue of 
patriotism, when carried to excess and blighted by 
despair, may lead, not only into fearful error, but 

c 2 



20 SKETCHES OE THE POLISH MIND. 

also into positive crime. The extracts conclude with 
a letter to Prince Wladislaus, and a welcome to the 
daughter of Col. Lach-Szyrma ; the former des- 
tined to give some idea of the feelings and senti- 
ments of the Poles with regard to those whom they 
consider as their future leaders ; the latter affording 
a glimpse into the Polish mind as regards the posi- 
tion of the ladies amongst them. 



HlVI YORK, N. Y e 
LI8RARL 



PART II. 



EVENTS IN WHICH I HAVE TAKEN PAKT, 
AND OF WHICH I HA YE BEEN AN EYE- 
WITNESS. 



CHAPTEE I. 

" Tout notre raisonnment se r6duit a c£der au sentiment." 

Pensees de Pascal. 

Thus mucli for the ancient records, which my 
late father used to read to me, and the pages of 
which, yellowed by age, I have often turned, my- 
self, expecting miracles to come, and building 
castles in the air on the trembling foundation of 
old legends. 

And now the tear of disillusion runs down my 
cheek whilst I sing you my family tale. Since the 
successive partitions of Poland, my race has drooped, 
and now the hour of the extinction of the name of 
Przyiemski is fast approaching. Since Providence 
has denied me the blessing of a son, I am the last 



22 SKETCHES OE THE POLISH MIND. 

of my race. The first part of my ancestor's pro- 
phecy (the many misfortunes of my earlier life) has 
proved true ; that the latter part may in the re- 
mainder of my days be fulfilled, there is no proba- 
bility. "We no longer believe in miracles ; and though 
my heart nursed dreams in its youth, age and ex- 
perience have clipped its wings, soaring but too 
often in the clouds of fancy. I will finish my song 
with events as sad as they are true. 



CHAPTEE II. 

"Multum ille et terris jactatus et alto." — Eneid* 

"When, with the oar of memory, I row back 
towards the past, and, through the mists of sorrow, 
try to land upon its shore, the boat of thought 
leaks but too often, the pumps of remembrance are 
insufficient against the current of events, one swal- 
lowing up the other, and often, in thus looking 
backward, I am shipwrecked on the sunken rock of 
yearning. 

To one who, in the journey of life, has passed 
the flowery region of hope, in the once swift 
chariot of whose imagination the exhausted horses 



EVENTS or 1848-9. 23 

utterly fail, — to such an one the emptiness of the 
chariot is indeed dreary, telling as it does of the 
loss of caskets of happy dreams, stolen from him 
one by one, by the cold hard hand of reality ; and 
yet, though all these treasures are gone, it is 
sweet in the desolate stillness to gaze upon their 
vacant places, and, by the power of longing, to 
create them as it were anew. The pale-grown 
teart blushes for a moment with a sudden glow of 
thought : who knows ? perhaps those horses may 
yet make a start, though the chariot has sunk deep 
in the ground of experience, marshy with tears and 
blood! 

When on the wave of excitement, in armistice 
with my present fate, I chase with delight the 
golden thoughts of youth, often the first shot of the 
beginning battle on the roaring sea of life hits 
the helm of my boat, and, thus disabled, I am 
worsted for the instant ; but I do not strike my 
flag : trust in God is embroidered upon it ; as long 
as I see it wave I will never give myself up for 
lost. Again the drum beats, the trumpet sounds ; 
I heed not the groan of dying hope, nor the heavy 
shot of fate, but gather the relic of my forces 
round this my flag, and with its motto graven on 
my heart, I will conquer in the battle of life, or, 
dying, I will fall at the foot of the inspiring banner, 



24 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

drawing comfort from it with the last glance of my 
closing eye. And even now, whilst my despatches 
tell of my present disadvantages in the combat, I 
hope to God to be permitted, before the setting of 
the sun, to change the tidings ; like Napoleon, who, 
vanquished in the morning, won in the evening 
the glorious battle of Marengo. 



CHAPTEE III. 

" Night rolls the hours away." — Popes Iliad. 

In Tottenham, where the river Lea joins the canal 
of the same name, in a narrow little room, the 
abode of poverty, a few books my sole companions, 
I pass my night in writing. 

The moon peeps with his pale face through my 
open window, flirts with my lamp, trifles with its 
light, and, causing my eye to wander from my 
writing, entangles the thread of thought. 

If now the spirit of my ancestor could float 
down in the dreamy moonbeam to the last of his 
race, he would find it hard to recognise in the 
crippled exile, desolate and solitary, far from his 
dear old mother and scarcely-known daughter, 
and distressed with the thought that his work (the 



ETENTS OE 1848-9. 25 

sole possible means of support for a man who 
possesses self-respect) may fail, he would find it 
hard, I say, to recognise the former leader of 
thousands and the subject of his splendid prophecy. 
The dull, careworn, long-bearded and wrinkled face, 
could scarcely now shine with the enthusiasm of a 
hero destined to play an important part in the 
future drama of Poland. The spirit of my ancestor 
would be more likely to echo my heartfelt " Alas4" 
than to believe his own words. 



CHAPTEE IY. 

" When shall I hear his voice ? " — Battle of Lora : Ossian. 

Ik 1820 I shed my first tear, which blended with 
those of my dear mother, who, at my birth, lost 
both health and hearing. In the castle of Tarnopol 
the keepsake of life was bestowed upon me. I keep 
it for the sake of the giver; but were I not a 
Christian, I could not be thankful for it. 

When my thoughts dress the rank and file of so 
many years on their march through the wilderness 
of the world, to them so tuneless, unsweetened by 
the music of loving voices of dear ones and the 
melodies of nature, and rendered still more dreary 



26 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

by the continued dismal beating of the drum of 
one's own longing heart ; when I think of fruitless 
endeavours through half-caught words to catch the 
thread of social intercourse, wreathing the garland 
which hides the shackles of life, I faint under the 
idea of the torture of deafness, the first poison 
poured by my unconscious hand into the tearful 
cup of my mother's life. Do not wonder at my 
dwelling upon this affliction : I have a deaf mother — 
she had only me to love her — I deserted her for 
my country's sake, and doubled the bitterness of 
the sorrows of the star of my morning, not per- 
mitted, alas ! to be my evening star, and destined 
to quit the horizon without a glance from me to 
cheer its setting, though its sweet beams were the 
comforters of my early bitter fate. 

At four years of age, I entered upon a ten years' 
course of classical studies at the Lyceum of Tarno- 
pol, which was established in the following way. 
When the Pope excommunicated the Jesuits, and 
no shelter was to be found for them throughout the 
whole of Europe, the Russian Czar made the out- 
casts of Christendom his beloved guests ; when 
Europe pardoned their sins, the Czar plundered 
and banished them ; the wrong of Europe was al- 
ways the Czar's right ; by weakening surrounding 
nations and disturbing the peace of the world, 



events or 1848-9. 27 

Eussia ever grew in power and territory; while 
Poland would have continued to be the shield and 
armour of Europe, which now, grown careless and 
effeminate, permits that armour to corrode in exile 
and to rust in tears and blood, in the dampness of 
dungeons and mines. 

The Austrian Government appointed a cloister 
in Tarnopol to shelter the Jesuits chased from 
Eussia. Austria decided to make good use of the 
tools thrown away by her partner, and therefore 
ordered that the children of Polish noblemen, and 
of the better classes, should be taught worldly 
wisdom by monks, and instructed in religion by 
Jesuits. Thus was founded the seminary where my 
childhood was spent. 

After having passed the examination in philo- 
sophy (taught by Jesuits), I went on to Lemberg, 
for the academical course, and, when a boy of scarcely 
sixteen and a half, left college to enter the army, 
the'only career open in Austria to those who scorn 
to deal in the daily persecution of their fellow- 
countrymen (in partnership with hangmen), by 
entering a government office. Better the sword 
destined for war against Austria's fellow-tyrants, 
than coldblooded murder of one's countrymen by 
strokes of the pen ! 



28 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

CHAPTER Y. 

"Exegi monumentum aere perennius." — Horace: Ode xxx. 

"Weee I to tune my lyre to a lay of my own 
deeds, soon would it cease to sound. Some half- 
budded laurels, frostbitten by oblivion ; some faint- 
ing pale smiles of Mars and Venus ; the whistling 
of sabres and the heavy breath of the cannon's 
mouth ; the trampling of horses, once over my own 
bleeding body, more than once over the corpse- 
covered field of battle ; the groans of the dying ; 
news of the scaffold, dungeons and exile — these 
are everyday' s songs for my fellow-countrymen: 
poverty, comforted by work, and the consciousness 
of having done my duty, were too prosaic a theme. 
I will sing to you of Bern and Dembinski, their 
hero-stamped minds, their laurel-crowned names 
will fill you with delight ; their fame will be the 
light of my picture, the shadow side of which some 
of my own experiences contribute to darken, as, in 
the triumphal procession of kings, there is a proper 
place for their humble vassals. 

In relating events, it is treason to make use of 
any other language than that of unimpassioned 
simple truth. Should, then, the listener to my song 
find it wanting in sweetness of tune, may the beauty 



EVENTS OE 1848-9. 29 

and harmony of truth compensate for the lack of 
poetry of expression. To the heart of a Pole, the 
coarsest rhyme that pays homage to the heroes of 
his country, recited by a witness and partaker of 
the scenes recorded, written with their swords, 
and dedicated to Poland, will be welcomed as an 
Homerian strain. 



CHAPTEE VI. 

u How many lie there of my heroes the Chiefs of Inisfail." 

Fingal : Ossian. 

Dembistski,* famed in the history of the Polish 
war of independence, in 1830-1, having been in- 
vited by Kossuth, in the name of the Hungarian 
nation, arrived in Hungary from his exile in Paris. 
Before entering the field against Hungary's German 
enemy, he was obliged to combat much folly and 
disorder, besieging the green table of the govern- 

* Count Henry Dembinski ; a warrior celebrated in the wars 
of Napoleon, who bestowed upon him the Cross of the French 
Legion of Honour ; he was rewarded by the Polish nation with 
the Polish Order of Valour, in the war of independence, in 
1831. When holding the rank of lieutenant-general, he was 
recognised, in his retreat from Lithuania, as the first in strate- 
gical science. In 1849, he was commander-in-chief of the 
Hungarian army. 



30 SKETCHES OE THE POLISH MIND. 

ment ; he cut through the net of treachery that 
Gorgei had spread already round his country, to be 
sold in future wholesale to the Czar and Co., and 
took the command of the army. 

New life and hope brightened the warrior's heart 
and eye, when the forces scattered through the 
length and breadth of Hungary, began, according to 
his plan, their march towards the river Theis. The 
soldiers knew that an experienced hand was guid- 
ing their ranks ; military skill was to strengthen the 
heroic devotion and valour of the brave Hungarian 
army, the flat strokes of the sword were no more 
to be bewailed ; the soldier loved this grey-bearded 
face, still young and fresh under the silvery locks, 
this noble martial figure so tall and commanding, 
those eyes fierce in battle, soft when paying homage 
to the ladies. I have heard that Eodakowski suc- 
ceeded m painting his likeness for the Paris Exhi- 
bition of Fine Arts; but I rather doubt the success 
of the painter, notwithstanding the gold medal 
he received for it ; for one who did not know Dem- 
binski, with the background of a battle-field, when 
listening to his favorite song, the roar of the cannon, 
could not know what he was like, nor model this 
model of a warrior. 

The snows of the February of 1849 fall over the 
warrior-peopled banks of the Theis: Gorgei the 



events of 1848-9. 31 

traitor, Leiningen and Poltemberg the martyrs of . 
Arad, Kmety, Gruyon # and Klapka, the exiles of 
to-day, have already received Dembinski's orders. 
Let me sing the song of the 3rd February, Ghiyon 
its hero, and the rocky pass of Branyiszko its field 
of glory. 

THE SONG OF GUYON. 

" Arma virumque cano." — Virgil. 

England, sole country where a free press and the 
noble mind of the people evince the majesty of 
public opinion ! — Indisputable living argument for 
Freedom and Order ! twin sisters, aiding their nurse, 
Religion, in blessing the happy land of their abode — 
where loyalty, unlike its counterfeit abroad, per- 
verted to an hypocritical mask by serfs fawning to 
the hand that strikes them, is a real virtue, noble 
and ennobling. Thou wast the first to raise thy 
voice against slavery, thou gavest the world the 
example of owning thy faults and loving thine 
enemies, though ungrateful America would fain 

* An Englishman by birth, Guyon entered the Austrian 
military service as lieutenant of cavalry, married an Hungarian 
Countess, and left the army, till the war of 1848 recalled him, 
when he distinguished himself, and died lately in the Turkish 
service, after the above was written. 



32 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

deny it, Thou land of crystal palaces, fairyland 
of industry, oh listen to a song in celebration of a 
glorious child of thine, who sustained the honour of 
the English name upon fields where the bard him- 
self has bled ! 

Gruyon, though bearing the title of an Austrian 
count, never ceased to feel himself an Englishman. 
Homage to the freedom of Hungary, his adopted 
country, fidelity to its constitution and his oath, 
these were his first words ; and so loudly did he 
proclaim them, that the world heard them. May 
the grandeur of the deeds I sing, supply the want 
of melody in the strain; for a hand which the sword 
has covered with wounds is ill-suited to the lyre. 

Grorgei — that bird of ill-omen, the evil spirit of 
the sad fate of Hungary — gave to Gruyon the com- 
mand of troops untried in war. Fortune frowned 
darkly upon them on the 21st January, 1849, at 
Windschat, and scarcely had they recovered from 
the terrors of that day, when Grorgei destined them 
to storm the impregnable pass of Branyiszko. Ar- 
ranging a ball for the remainder of his officers, he 
left Gruyon to fight alone, where superstition and 
history alike decided the impossibility of victory. 

Gruyon, not tall in size, but high in military 
valour, with fair hair, well-formed nose, and thin 
lips, his grey eyes sparkling fire, speed and decision 



EVENTS OF 1848-9. 33 

in every movement, himself on horseback leads his 
troops. Catching his ardour, and forgetful of 
danger, they fling aside the very idea of impossi- 
bility, and wildly rush over paths where a chamois 
would scarcely dare to leap. In vain the cannon- 
crowned hills cry to them, " Away, madmen!" they 
fly upon the opposing bayonets and conquer the 
impregnable position : the madmen are successful 
heroes — their warners, prisoners or corpses. 

Not only Hungary, but all Europe, thrilled with 
admiration (Grorgei alone hearing the news with 
envy), and history has given to these brave warriors 
one of its brightest pages ; yet, alas ! to-day, when 
a Pole sings to England of the laurels won by an 
Englishman upon the battle-field of Hungary, her 
people have already forgotten his very existence. 
" Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas !" 

Such were the deeds of one of thy sons, England, 
mother of so many heroes ! A storm of enthusiasm 
and admiration arose in the hearts, both of the 
actors and the witnesses of this epos. Its first 
flash of lightning, gleaming athwart the book of my 
memory, lit up the page on which was inscribed 
that deed of world-wide celebrity, the storming of 
Samosiera, where Napoleon commanded the Poles 
to conquer. Twice were the French legions re- 

D 



34 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

pulsed; but the valour of Kozietulski and his 
lancers gained the day, and on rocks too lofty for 
the flight of the golden eagle of Prance, waved 
its triumphant pinions the snow white eagle of 
Poland. 

Judge, by this comparison of thy younger heroes 
with the historic names so dear to Poland, how 
deep and sincere is my tribute of admiration, yet 
how keen my sorrow ; since experience has brought 
the conviction, that even miracles of valour sink 
into nothingness when nations look to Grod only 
as the God of the Jews, the Lord of hosts, forget- 
ting that to us, as Christians, he is the Prince of 
Peace. Alas ! that England, herself enjoying the 
full glory of liberty, should suffer her sisters to 
languish in thraldom, deprived even of the Word 
of God, by the cruelty of tyrants, her allies. 



EYENTS OF 1848-9. 35 



CHAPTEE VII. 

A CONVERSATION- IN THE HUNGARIAN CAMP. 

"The soldier his worth must understand." 

Churchill's translation of Wallenstein. 

A Young Honved Recruit. 
An Old Trumpeter in the Hussars. 
An Old Drummer. 
A Polish Lancer. 

A Young Corporal in the Hussars {serving in an ancient 
regiment). 



Honved (defender of the country) was the name of the new 
Hungarian battalions, formed in 1848, who wore red trim- 
mings on their uniforms ; the ancient part of the army had 
them in Austrian colours, black and yellow, and refused to 
change them, for regimental traditions of fame endeared 
them to the wearers. Besides, the black and yellow repre- 
sented the anti-republican feelings of the old regiments, 
whilst the lovers of the red were republicans, though in 
reality the army cared but little for the form of govern- 
ment, and fought solely for freedom and the Hungarian 
constitution. 



Bivouac-fire — in the lack-ground, soldiers dancing the Hun- 
garian dance to the sound of a fiddle — in the fore-ground a 
group in conversation, wine glasses in their hands, eating and 
drinking on the ground. 

The Becruit. — " Tour health, dear sirs and com- 
rades ; three cheers for Hungary, three for Bern, 

d2 



36 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

and three times three for both. And now, esteemed 
sirs, let your wisdom flow with the wine : some 
words on the military art would be welcome to 
your humble servant, who has the honour to be 
your brother-in-arms. The milky face would grow 
wise by words spoken from under the shade of 
your grey moustaches ; for you must have felt and 
learnt much in your milky-faced times." 

The Trumpeter, — " Creamy, my dear boy ; old 
times are but cream and cheese and gold and 
laurels. Well, military art, my boy, is no necro- 
mancy; the whole matter lies in comprehending 
the trumpeters. Valour, order, strict obedience, 
are but the echo of the trumpet, which leads the 
soldiers to fight the enemy as well as to the barrack 
duties." 

The Drummer. — "Military honour, my friend, 
is the abstruse point in question: one time it 
quotes black, another time white. Neither the lean 
trumpet " 

The Trumpeter. — " Nor the big-bellied drum, 
are sufficient to beat time: one often gets into 
melting heat when choosing the right colours ; but 
the chief rule is always to beat, never to be beaten." 

The Drummer. — " To set a brave face to every 
sad affair, to fight, to make love in a perfectly 
knightly style, and above all " 



events op 1848-9. 37 

The Trumpeter. — " Do your duty to the trumpet. 
At its first sound you must be on horseback, out 
from under the shot of pretty eyes, under that of 
the cannon, even if the trumpet call you away from 
the side of your sweetheart ; for military honour 
says ' Fighting at all times, love-making at leisure.' " 

The Polish Lancer. — " And if the kiss, in con- 
quering which the trumpet was a disturber, proves 
' sour grapes,' the cannon will double it with grape- 
shot. Tou never will be the loser there if you mind 
the Polish prescription for military honour, * Ever 
forward, for God, Poland, and the ladies.' " 

The Recruit* — " I take it that is a fine prescrip- 
tion. I will note it down and send for it to the 
camp-apothecary." 

The Polish Lancer. — " Mother-cannon will give 
you many other first-rate home-made prescriptions ; 
but the Polish one is always ready in our Polish 
hearts. So will it be with the Hungarian ones when 
once they get rid of the old stuff: ' Moriamur 
pro rege nostro Maria Teresia.' "Were it for King 
Kossuth I would not mind it. I like it better than 
the Prench-fashioned trash about republic ; which 
means — I know it from our sad experience — down 
with worthy men, hurrah for intriguers, a race of 
perjurers and villains ready to be bribed for the 
imperial crown, with the sign of the guillotine at 



38 SKETCHES 0E THE POLISH MIND. 

the resting-places. I know what those French 
fancy-ware of ' Liberte, egalitie, fraternite,' mean, 
— a humbug — that's their republic. " # 

The rest, ivith the exception of the Recruit. — 
" That's what we think too." 

The Recruit . — " I never could understand what 
this funny word meant ; explain it to me." 

The Drummer.—" It is too dry and too compli- 
cated to be explained ; but, so far as we understand 
it, it means ' Double pay and no king.' " 

The Recruit. — "I understand it perfectly. It 
is not so bad a thing after all. I wonder, then, 
why the regiments object to changing their nasty 
Austrian-smelling, black-yellow trimmings, for our 
fine true Hungarian red ones." 

The young Corporal. — " Valour lies in hearts, 
not in uniforms, — that is true enough ; but colours 
mark distinctions. Tou are recruits, and we old 
warriors ; centuries speak of the history of our 
regiments ; the Honveds are the rising sun, but the 
Hussars the noon, and it would be a pity to change 
the dress, the sight of which so often made the 
Turk and Prussian turn pale, and which was ad- 
mired by the ladies of Paris. Take it as an expla- 
nation and not as a taunt. Tou are fine fellows 

* This definition of " the republic/' given by an old soldier, 
is not only historical but generally known. 



EVENTS OF 1848-9, 39 

and brave : we love you. Beside, my good fellow, 
a king when not a perjurer, and if a personal 
leader of his army, is a golden apple, — take it at my 
word ; and such is not only my opinion, but that of 
three-fourths of the army. As to the double pay, 
who cares for it ? a drummer, perhaps ! But why ? 
Tobacco, wine, and a kiss belong to the happy lips 
of an hussar, and scorn to be paid for, a sabre, 
a horse and pistols we get from our colonel — songs 
and moustaches come of themselves. Of what good, 
then, is the double pay ? Why all this trash about 
the republic ? Kossuth knows what we want, and 
we hate the politics of the asses of the green- 
table.* Hungary, Kossuth and Bern for ever! 
Fight well and never mind the republic, nor the 
colours of the trimmings. 5 ' 

The Polish Lancer.—" Fidelity to your colours: 
whatever they may be, if for the cause of freedom, 
they are fine ones. ' Liberty, Bern, and the ladies 
for ever.' " 

* The old regiments disliked the political debates of the 
government, and, though enthusiastic for Kossuth, called the 
rest of the civilians " the asses of the green-table." 



40 SKETCHES OE THE POLISH MIND. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

" Kuin must needs ensue ; for what avails 
Valour or strength, though matchless, quelled with pain 
Which all subdues." Paradise Lost. 

It is with a heartfelt sigh that I pronounce the 
name of one, who was at once my general, my 
father in arms, and my much-loved friend, Bern,* — 
that name so precious to the soldier ! Tes ! precious 
and exalted, not to those alone, who had the privi- 
lege to fight under him, but to the gazers from afar, 
on the miracles of his valour ; reverenced and 
admired even by such as suffered defeat from his 
hero-hand. In this name, in these deeds, lies the 
brilliant explanation wherefore the warrior con- 
siders his destiny as the loftiest and the most 
glorious. 

Now that the twofold veil of death and of the ■ 
turban have shrouded the hero from the eyes of 
Christendom, may it at least be permitted to his 
monument to enter the Pantheon, through the 
portal of martial hearts. 

As an artist flings to the back of his portfolio 

* Joseph Bern, the son of a citizen of Galicia, died as 
Murat-Pasha and Turkish Field-Marshal in Aleppo, 1850^ 
His talent as a general in Transylvania, in 1848-9, his heroic 
exploits at Warsaw and Ostrolenka, in 1831, and his defence of 
Vienna, are universally celebrated. 



EVENTS OF 1848-9. 41 

a useless leaf, so Europe has now thrown aside, as 
uninteresting, the name of the fortress Viddin, 
situated in an obscure corner of the world, on the 
banks of the Danube. Seen from Kalafat, on the 
opposite side of the river, the needles of its mina- 
rets, and the long line of its fortified wall, may mis- 
lead the poetic traveller, who would find within 
only dirt and ruin, some decaying works of fortifi- 
cation, and a few scattered huts of Christians and 
Jews, at the feet of the Turkish temples. Hither 
came a troop of knights, Bern at their head, having 
opened the gates of the road leading to this place 
of refuge with the soldier's chief key, his much- 
loved sword, after Gorgei, through his treachery, 
had barred us from the possibility of victory, and 
experience and a soldier's honour left us the sole 
alternative of cutting our way, sword in hand, into 
Turkey, in whose people we had confidence as to 
security from betrayal, and after fighting our way 
through Christendom-dishonouring Austria, and the 
slavish hordes of Eussia, in order to avoid being 
either actors or spectators at the last act of the Hun- 
garian tragedy, in whose principal scenes, Gorgei, 
who had always been considered more of a chemist 
than a patriot, played the part of an alchemist, chang- 
ing into gold his own honour, the blood of his com- 
rades, and the future of his fatherland. Arad's 



42 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

thirteen scaffolds gave, through the hand of the 
executioner, a new proof of the truth long since 
acknowledged in the military world, — that the sur- 
render of arms and treachery are, mostly, crimes of 
equal magnitude ; that they are followed by suffer- 
ing and contempt, and almost invariably fail even 
to save the honourless life. 

Fame is the warrior's pole-star, illuminating him 
in life as in death ; his lot is either the victor's 
wreath or the martyr's palm : both are only to be 
won by arms. Coward or traitor is the name of 
him who, having once drawn the sword, returns it 
to its scabbard before having shattered it on the 
heads of the enemies of his fatherland, or who 
flings himself at the feet of his conqueror, asking 
for quarter, when death might have spared him this 
disgrace. A soldier fights, dreams of the tears or 
smiles of his lady-love, conquers and dies, always 
sword in hand ; with it he signs in red ink all his 
transactions with the enemy. To scriveners — half- 
fox, half-serpent — the ink-glass may serve as the 
fountain of fame, or as the shield of life ; the soldier 
has his blood and his sword. 

Bern and his warriors, as is well known, and as 
was natural, marched into Viddin with their swords 
drawn. They were received with open arms and 
hearts. Bern himself, and three of his sub-corn- 



EVENTS OF 1848-9. 43 

manders, of whom I was one, were the guests of 
Zia Pasha, Lord-lieutenant of Viddin. The rest of 
Bern's gallant corps occupied the camp on the 
banks of the Danube. Thus passed a week of un- 
expected proofs of the friendship and nobleminded- 
ness of the Turks, when we entered our quarters in 
the town, where we were soon surprised by news 
still more unexpected. 

Bern sent for me one morning, and addressed me 
thus, " Comrade, in our sorrowful situation only- 
sorrowful tidings can be looked for ; yet I have re- 
ceived such as have astounded even me, prepared 
as I was for anything and everything. Read the 
four despatches which have been brought me this 
very night, by one courier after another, from the 
Grand Vizier, and from Omar Pasha, and two from 
Czaika, # all to the same effect. Russia, once con- 
quered by our King Stephen Batory, and spared 
by him at the intercession of the Pope, and Austria, 
rescued from the Turks by our King John III., 
also in consequence of Papal remonstrance, threaten 
Turkey with the commencement of hostilities, 
should she refuse to deliver up to them the heads 
of nine Hungarians and twelve Poles ; among these, 
thine and mine. The Pope excommunicates us as 
rebels against his apostolic majesty — oh! bitter 

* Czaika, a Polish author, now Sadyk-Pasha. 



44 SKETCHES OE THE POLISH MIND. 

mockery of tlie name of Christian. The Bomish 
and the Eussian heads of Christendom denounce 
faithfulness to an oath solemnly taken, as rebellion, 
and call the perjurer apostolic ; the Sultan invites 
us into the ranks of his army, with the promise of 
promotion : Christians act like barbarians, Turks 
evince the fraternal love of Christians. The king- 
dom which Poland's weapons weakened is willing 
to afford us a refuge ; the powers that owe to 
Polish valour and Christian feeling their very ex- 
istence, require our blood. Turkey is too weak to 
bid defiance to the united powers of Russia and 
Austria, and too honourable to deliver up to the 
axe of the executioner those who have sought her 
protection, 

" In this dilemma, the Grand Vizier made use of a 
diplomatic evasion, and informed the ambassadors 
of both Emperors that we were about to become 
Turks, and that they could not deliver the faithful 
into the hands of Christians, without incurring the 
curse of Mahomet. Austria and Russia answered 
unitedly, they would demand nothing contrary to 
the Koran, and that Emperor and Czar would alike 
be contented, could they receive authentic proofs 
that the rebels who had fought their way from 
Hungary to Turkey had become renegades ; other- 
wise, the heads of the high traitors, or war ! 

"These are the contents of the four despatches; 



events op 1848-9. 45 

the Grand Vizier and Omar Pasha make us the offer 
in the name and by the order of the Sultan. Czaika 
presses me to give the example, and promises that 
we shall soon lead the Turkish army against Russia. 
Now, comrade, tell me, what is thy opinion ?" 

" I, General ? I suppose you will allow me to 
say what I really think ?" 

" Go on : I require it of thee." 

I was silent for an instant ; for it pained me to 
hear my General question a matter, in which there 
was not, to me, the shadow of a doubt ; yet friendly 
considerations do not alter the truth — " Amicitia 
usque ad aras." I answered — 

" General, my opinion, and certainly yours, was 
often expressed by our forefathers, in their constant 
wars with the Turks, when a choice was given them 
between death and apostacy. A Polish nobleman 
will never be untrue to his lady-love, his fatherland, 
and his faith." 

In Czaika' s writings, I have often read the same 
words, and I see, with disgust, from his letters, 
that he thinks and writes differently. Heaven be 
thanked, he is a Cossack, and no nobleman ! 

"My advice is to answer Czaika with silence, 
and the Turks, cordially, but with a decided nega- 
tive ; and then as to Death, our old acquaintance, 
we shall soon dispose of him. Besides, we are still 



46 SKETCHES OE THE POLISH MIND. 

together, with our swords at our sides : we will 
propose to him the exchange of a few Eussians and 
Germans for each of us ; perhaps he will do the 
same, as he has often done before, and accept the 
bargain." 

" Listen to me, Przyiemski," he said, taking my 
hand : " I have told thee exactly how matters stand; 
it is not thy General who speaks to thee, but thy 
grey-haired friend, and thy comrade in the field. 
We know each other well ; in the presence of father 
War we have drunk brotherhood together ; both 
have bled for freedom, honour, and Poland. A 
suspicion that a promise of promotion has allured 
us, or that the fear of death has terrified us into a 
change of faith, cannot attach to us ; my grey hairs 
and the deeds of thy young life would contradict 
it too loudly and too honourably. The world will 
comprehend my higher motives ; the flash of the 
swords which we shall soon draw against Eussia 
will illuminate them; Poland alone can bridle 
Eussia, The Czar already carries it with too high 
a hand toward Europe ; soon will his robber arm be 
stretched out to grasp Constantinople ; then will a 
light arise to a world, wilfully blind, that will 
manifest as European necessities the restoration 
of Poland and the maintenance of Turkey. The 
West of Europe will then be obliged to consider 



EVENTS OF 1848-9. 47 

our cause as her own. Renovated Poland must at 
first accept as king, an Austrian or a Prussian 
prince; what later times may bring, God only 
knows ; one thing is certain, — that Europe must 
soon be our brother in arms, or the vassal of the 
Czar. Poland and freedom, or Russia and des- 
potism, will be the watchword of the next war. 
These are my reasons for advising the Poles to 
stand ready for fight, before the conflict begins, to 
march under Turkish banners into Europe's camp, 
to give the world a proof that our breasts form the 
securest defence against Moscow, and the foun- 
dation stone of a durable peace. Poland will be 
our guarantee to the world that we, her children, 
whether receiving our baptism of blood in a church 
or a mosque, equally preserve the cross in our 
hearts, on the pinions of the white eagle, even 
though the crescent be emblazoned upon our 
banners. Moreover, at the present day, the world 
thinks little of difference in rites, and I will not 
deny that, to me, every way is welcome, should it 
be through hell itself, if it only leads to Poland." — 
Here he suddenly placed the Turkish cap upon 
his head — " I am already a Mussulman." 

A curse on the war which turns heroes into 
renegades, a curse on the despots who sport with 
human lives, and, rooting out love from the heart, 



48 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

plant despair in its stead ! This was the first excla- 
mation of my wounded heart, which consideration 
for the venerable man would not allow to pass my 
lips; for, indifferent as was to us in reality the 
cause of the Romish Church, which had wrought 
so much moral and political evil for Poland, the 
force of circumstances placed it before our eyes, 
only in the light of the faith for which our an- 
cestors had bled, and in which we had been edu- 
cated, — endeared by association rather than admired 
in itself. The grave of my father seemed to open, 
crying shame upon the renegades. 

Almost breathless with heartfelt sorrow, I replied, 
" General, the faith of the world in these days 
is cold, the Pope denounces us, Austria and Russia 
leave us the choice between disgrace and death ; 
for even the man of the world, indifferent to reli- 
gion, considers apostacy as a stain on his honour. 
Do not be offended at my plain words, — they are 
aimed at myself. God, who looks at the heart, 
will forgive your sin ; the loud trumpet of your 
military renown will drown the one discordant note 
in the harmony of your hero-life. But the scarcely 
audible whispers which the voice of Fame would 
grant to myself, would die away, almost before it 
was breathed, and the disgrace of a change of faith 
in the face of death would alone remain." 



EVENTS OF 1848-9. 49 

"Is this your only reply, Colonel Przyiemski ?" 
said Bern, angrily : " has the once beloved General 
and friend no more claim upon you ? or," he added, 
in a softened tone, " does thy friendship vanish with 
my fortune ?" 

" Friendship and faith with me live on unaltered 
to the grave," I answered, with a sigh. 

"Farewell, then, Colonel!" said Bern, and directed 
me to the door, although tears stood in his eyes, 
belying the angry tone in which the 'words were 
spoken. I left the room in silence ; but what was 
passing in my heart was known only to God and 
to those who have parted, in a similar manner, 
from an heroic commander, whose esteem and love 
they have won in bloody wars, and have prized it 
as a happiness for life. 

From that time Turks and renegades alone were 
Bern's companions. At length in Szumla, just 
before we parted to meet no more, he sent for 
me, blessed me, and kissed my forehead. He 
acknowledged that the diplomacy that was daily 
dragging down Europe to the feet of the Czar 
would make it difficult for the Sultan to fulfil 
his promise to Poland. Thus we separated with 
sorrowful hearts: he departed to Aleppo, there 
to meet a premature death ; we to Kutaiah, into 
exile. May God in his mercy, which so far ex- 

E 



50 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

ceeds his justice, pardon the sin induced by the 
despair of the venerable Polish hero, counting 
rather his lofty virtues ! May He mildly look down 
upon tortured Poland, which for a whole century 
has been nailed to the cross of yearning and steeped 
to the lips in gall. 

May He re-arrange the world, which through sin 
has become a ruin and a chaos, into a temple of 
faith and love. 



CHAPTER IX. 

"Gaudent perfusi sanguinem fratrum 
Exilioque domos et dulcia limina mutant." 

Virgil. 

A little Bulgarian town is swarming with 
people, horses and carriages. The leaders of the 
Hungarian war of independence leave Szumla to- 
day. Hungary calls them heroes; Austria, high 
traitors ; Eome, desecrators ; Turkey calls them the 
guests of the Sultan, and through her nobility of 
mind and courtesy does her utmost to make them 
and herself forget that they are prisoners, and that 
she is compelled by political necessity to become 
their gaoler. 

Achmet Effendi, the ambassador of the Sultan 
to his guests, arrived in Szumla, and brought furs 



EVENTS OF 1849-50. 51 

of honour* for the travellers to Kutaiah. Jas- 
maggy, Austria's agent, lurks in the corner of the 
street, to count and see that there are none wanting 
of those obnoxious to Austria ; he holds a list of 
them in his hand. Reader, if it does not disgust 
thee to approach the menials of the hangman, look 
at the paper, — a black line divides it into columns, 
Poles and Hungarians. In the first thou wilt read 
Dembinski, "Wysocki, Przyiemski, Matczynski ; in 
the second, Kossuth, Bathyany, Messaros, Perczel. 
The other names are covered by the sleeve of the 
blood-hound — all the better, perhaps — the repetition 
of these names, so often mentioned in diplomatic 
notes, now forgotten, bringing to mind only the 
revenge of the tyrant and the severity of fate, 
might do harm. Look away, then, from the register 
of the children of misfortune, the victims of poli- 
tical ingratitude and imperial perjury ; they them- 
selves are approaching with their companions, some 
of whom are going to share their exile, others 
merely to accompany them out of the town : in the 
latter party rides on a white horse the Colonel 
Count Wladislaus Zamoiski, the chief of the Poles 
in Szumla, afterwards, in 1855, General in the 
English service and leader of the Sultan's Cossacks. 
Jasmaggy's eye flashes with rage, his cowardly 

* Furs in Turkey are used for conferring honorary distinctions. 

E 2 



52 SKETCHES OP THE POLISH MIND. 

hand is compelled to erase Zamoiski's name from 
the list — lie is a naturalised Frenchman ; France has 
freed him, as England protected Gruyon. 

Jasmaggy's eye becomes bloodshot ; for he sees 
that Dembinski also fails to appear. The old gentle- 
man had said in anger, "As long as Austria's slaves 
give the Turks orders I will defend myself; I have 
my sword still: death may disarm me, Austria 
cannot." He kept his word : only when Austria 
recalled her ambassadors, and at the entreaty of 
the Sultan that we would remember his diplomatic 
difficulties, and his sympathy for our cause, Dem- 
binski came to Kutaiah. 

The day before our departure, Bern, with a few 
renegades, had started for Aleppo. Universal sym- 
pathy was felt for him, but the deed which darkened 
his renown prevented it from finding expression; 
no one accompanied him ; to-day how different ! 
Ours was a motley procession. The greatest variety 
of Hungarian, Turkish and Polish uniforms, on 
horseback, in carriages, and on foot: the entire 
body of high Turkish functionaries, Achmet Effendi 
at their head, the garrison and population of 
Szumla, with their beys and pachas, their wives and 
children — everything which lived in the town and 
neighbourhood — came out to bid adieu to us in 
their different languages. 



EVENTS OF 1849-50. 53 

The parting scene between the comrades whom 
patriotism had united as brothers upon the battle- 
field, and whom triumphant despotism parted, it is 
superfluous to describe to a warrior ; to the reader 
unacquainted with arms it were impossible. 

In three days we arrived at Varna, and passed 
three days more in the palace of the resident 
Pacha, where we received a hearty welcome ; he 
himself showed us the field where Wladislaus, King 
of Poland and Hungary, fell. Borne persuaded 
him to break his oath of friendship to Turkey: 
Poland and Hungary blamed the monarch, and 
only an insignificant army accompanied him on this 
campaign. God punished him with death for the 
sin of believing that the Pope could nullify the 
oath sworn to a higher power. The Turks par- 
doned him, and honoured the memory of his valour, 
and called us brothers even upon the battle-field 
of Varna. Yet the judgment of the world pro- 
nounces the Turks barbarians, and does not silence 
the French, when they call themselves the leaders 
of civilization, with a self-elected Emperor, who has 
broken every possible oath, and resembles his 
great-uncle only in this, — that he courts the favour 
of despots, and would willingly see the blood of 
Poland flow for his own ends, only to repay her 
with indifference and forgetfulness. 



54 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

Fate punished our king for perjury ; it punishes 
us for our faithfulness to our oath and the Hun- 
garian constitution. 

The perjured Emperor of Austria lives on in his 
castle of Prague ; his nephew wields the Austrian 
sceptre, and the headsman's axe, under the protec- 
tion of Russia. 

The understanding of the philosopher stands 
still, the pen falls from the hand of the historian, 
the harp-chords of the minstrel break; God be 
thanked that the faith, hope and love of a Chris- 
tian remain to sustain him, otherwise the courage 
to continue his song would fail. 

The Turkish man-of-war Tahir-BaMr, received 
us at Varna : we reached the Bosphorus early in the 
morning, and lay at anchor in the Golden Horn 
before Constantinople ; but the ambassadors of 
Eussia and Austria protested against our landing 
to pay a visit to our protector, the Sultan. It was 
not till noon that they gave us to understand he 
was in the palace opposite, looking at us through 
a telescope, and bidding us welcome in his heart. 
"We all went on deck and raised our caps in greet- 
ing to the Sultan, heartily grateful to the noble- 
minded man for his sympathy, and sorrowful that 
we ourselves were too weak to help him to secure 
his own independence ; since his enemies, uninvited 



events of 1849-50. 55 

guests in our own country, fattened on our blood, 
and dictated to the Sultan in his own kingdom. 

We soon set sail, and, landing in Gruemlek, con- 
tinued our journey by land to Brussa. 

Brussa, once the residence of Tamerlane — in 
later times the dwelling-place of Abd-el-Kader, 
after his return from France — was, at the time we 
arrived there, the place of banishment of the "Wal- 
lachian patriots, who took up arms in 1848-9, in 
order to free the Danubian principalities from 
Russian protection, that they might have the Turks 
alone for their lords. Poor Turkey ! thy vassals 
fight for thee in vain. Eussian weapons extinguish 
the fire of sympathy in the blood of the Moldo- 
Wallachian youth, and the tears of their loved ones, 
and compel thee to send the patriots into exile. 
Poor Turkey ! once so brave and so powerful, now 
in the deadly hug of the Muscovite bear, deserted 
by Europe, which once trembled before thee. 

Europe, thou wicked old woman, in vain dost 
thou draw the nightcap over thy ears, saying, 
with a lazy yawn, " I am asleep," when duty and 
the rights of nations cry aloud to thee. Bussia 
will soon rouse thee from thy slumbers with the 
knout, and thou wilt open thy eyes to find thyself 
a Eussian domain in name or in spirit. God's 
vengeance awaits thee, thou most foolish of sleeping 



56 SKETCHES OP THE POLISH MIND. 

virgins — soon will the oil of thy lamp be extin- 
guished — thou wilt be shut out from beholding the 
marriage of freedom and justice ; the Czar will be 
thy bridegroom, and the rattle of chains and gnash- 
ing of teeth will be thy lot. Thou art on the eve 
of the fulfilment of the words of Napoleon, " Libre 
ou Cosaque." 

Rising from a beautiful and far-stretching 
plain is seen a range of mountains ; thence 
Brussa, from its elevated position, commands an 
extensive view of the country, down to the sea ; 
its appearance is picturesque — its hundred white 
minarets look like sentinels — its wooden but beau- 
tifully built palaces like the badges of order of a 
decorated warrior. The inferior houses vanish in 
the perspective, as many miseries in this world 
when surveyed from afar, by an eye that allows 
itself to be deceived by a glittering outside. The 
"Wallachians came to meet us on the plain ; friend- 
ship sprang up swiftly and warmly between them 
and the Poles — not so with the Hungarians ; per- 
haps these last were hindered from returning the 
cordiality they met with by the remembrance of 
their injustice toward the "Wallachians ; for so is 
the human heart created that it is easier to forgive 
an injury than to bear the sight of those against 
whom one has offended. Kossuth, even in misfor- 



events or 1849-50. 57 

tune, did not change his policy, and hesitated to 
receive the Wallachians ; but we, old and young, 
loved them like brothers — and to-day, when in 
spirit I ride over the plains of Brussa, I greet as 
friends the brothers G-olesco, the young "Wla- 
demiresco, and many others, whose names are 
now erased from my memory, but not from my 
heart. 

Kutaiah was far off, and the festival of Easter 
near ; we should have been obliged to celebrate it 
on the road had we left Brussa immediately. The 
feast of the resurrection of our Lord is, to the 
Poles, of double signification, commemorating our 
redemption from sin, and nourishing the hope of 
salvation from the yoke of foreign oppressors, the 
hope of the resurrection of our fatherland. Prom 
the earliest times all the houses in Poland have 
been wont to stand open during Easter week, the 
master of the house inviting every passer-by to 
partake of the dainties bountifully spread upon the 
long tables. Rich and poor, known and unknown, 
greet each other as friends and equals with the 
words, " Christ is arisen ;" while their eyes speak of 
a thousand hopes beside. The Turks knew this, and, 
out of regard to our religion and our clinging re- 
collections of our fatherland, permitted us to pass a 
month in Brussa. And here let me pay the tribute 



58 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MINT). 

due to Turkish tolerance and religiousness, and give 
the lie to the Eussian emissaries swarming in 
Turkey, who relate miracles to the Christians there 
of freedom under the Czar's protection and rule, 
with the ignorant and venal writers of the East, 
who, in this respect, calumniate Turkey. 

The religion of the Turks consists in prayers and 
almsgiving. This is the spirit of the Koran, with 
some useful, political, and sanitary precepts, and a 
few fables which Mahomet mixed with them, in order 
to dazzle the multitude, who were willing to be de- 
ceived — not half so many, however, as those which 
the Pope invents for the benefit of his religion in 
Italy, and the Czar for his in Moscow. I never 
saw a Turk making sport of foreign religion ; he 
despises infidelity only. In no Christian kingdom 
are so many Christian sects to be found together as 
in Turkey — the Government protects them all alike, 
without interfering in their affairs ; but, alas ! envy 
is rife amongst them. 

None of the Christian congregations in Brussa 
would open their churches to the Hungarian Pro- 
testants for Divine service during Easter. Sarim 
Pacha, lord-lieutenant of Brussa, invited them to 
make use of a saloon in his palace. Colonel Soliman 
Bey, the head of our escort, assisted with his own 
hands in the erection of an altar. He and many 



events of 1849-50. 59 

high Turkish officers and officials stood reverently 
by as the Hungarians partook of the holy sacra- 
ment, after the Lutheran manner. 

Say, Europe, where, through the whole range of 
thy dominions, has religious liberty advanced so far? 
Russia, by means of the knout, tortures into accept- 
ance of her rites ; Naples punishes with imprison- 
ment the reading of the Bible ; Austria introduces 
the Concordat in the nineteenth century; in 
Prance the Bishop of Aras writes blasphemous 
letters to seduce the Protestant children. Say, 
Europe, does not Turkey cause thee to blush? 
Alas, no! thou hast lost the sense of shame in 
sleep. 

Hardly was Easter Sunday over when honoured 
and beloved guests came to us. Guyon, from Con- 
stantinople, visited me and many others, and smiled 
at the question " What had brought him here ?" He 
held long conversations with Kossuth. We soon dis- 
covered the reason of his smile — Kossuth and his 
wife, with a few faithful followers, set out for a ride, 
accompanied by the usual small guard of honour : 
he had agreed with Guyon never to return to 
Brussa from this ride. 

In Constantinople Guyon had arranged with 
several English and American officers the escape of 
Kossuth. The American ship left the Golden 



60 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

Horn in the night; the confederate Englishmen 
and Americans, provided with arms, entered a sloop, 
which, on a sign to be given by Guy on, was to 
near the shore. Already Kossuth sees it, and the 
Turkish escort stands in dumb and inactive asto- 
nishment. "With a few decided steps Kossuth would 
have been free, and Austria furious with rage at 
the tidings of his escape to the New World ; but 
then he suddenly thought of the evils which his 
flight might bring upon Turkey, who had so ably 
protected himself and his comrades — -of the impres- 
sion which his withdrawal might make upon Hun- 
gary, where the hope of his speedy reappearance 
still kindled the dying hopes of many a heart — the 
possibility of being of use to the cause of Hungary 
in Turkey, — these reasons, and his dislike to abuse 
the confidence of the Turks, caused Kossuth to turn 
round. Gruyon and his associates came back in the 
American ship to Constantinople, where their 
absence had already been noticed, and had occa- 
sioned a positive panic ; but the thing was hushed 
up, and we were only sent away more hastily from 
Brussa. Thus we began our march to Kutaiah. 



61 



EPILOGUE. 

" Eegia res scelus est." — Ovid : Fastii, lib. vi. 

"Whilst the night of Paganism enshrouded the 
nations, the poison of envy and hatred grew rankly 
in the earth, feuds were hereditary, and wars in- 
cessant : when the light of Christianity arose, then 
dawned also brotherly and national love ; yet the 
frost, which during the night had chilled the hearts 
of the peoples, did not at once entirely thaw; 
indeed the conflicts between nations and national- 
ities, united by Grod, separated by Satan, has lasted 
partially to the present day. 

The Slavonian family is a thorn in the side of 
Germany, represented by its princes. Two Ger- 
man monarchs have drunk Slavonic blood, because 
they only feigned Christianity. Belief in the 
Father of nations would have forbid them the 
draught. Russia has denied Grod and made the Czar 
her idol, and therefore she crucified Poland. 

The nations are reluctant to enter into war, yet 
kings require recruits, and on one side they compel 
to finding them by laws, through the abuse of 
which on the other side, they force the weapons 
of despair into the hands of nations, and kindle the 
torches of revolution and civil war. 



62 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

The sun of righteousness penetrates indeed with 
warmer rays into the hearts of the people, but 
covetousness and self-love grow luxuriantly under 
the shadow of the crown, and cold hearts beat 
beneath the mantle of royalty — thus continues the 
curse of war. When will the giant steps of time 
bring us to such a point of perception, as to com- 
prehend that the world is the beautiful garden of 
nature, where one bed of flowers does not render 
another superfluous, and where the plants do not 
stand in each other's way, whose walks are laid out 
by reason and love ? Now, blood overflows these 
walks, the storm of discord uproots the trees, the 
serpent of envy poisons the flowers, the frost of 
egotism nips the plants. Mankind seems to have 
chosen an evil spirit for his gardener, who tears up 
the most healing plants to fill coffins with them, 
who breaks the buds of love to prepare from them 
a draught of poison. Reason degenerates into 
reasonings, or sinks into superstition. Tet despair 
not, oh world of my brethren ! the fruit of truth 
ripens in defiance of the cruel gardener. Look 
toward heaven — thence comes light and warmth ; 
G-od's archangels will conquer anew the evil spirits, 
their pinions will elevate our reason ; God in His 
mercy will enlighten with a smile the garden he 
originally arranged ; His hand will adorn it with 



LETTER TO PEINCE WLADISLATJS. 63 

two temples, — the temple of faith in Himself, and 
that of love for mankind. May the last sound of 
my lyre penetrate the clouds; may the angel of 
prayer bring before the throne of God the hope 
with which this song rhymes ; may He who is our 
ever-loving Father, unite the minstrel and the 
listener in gazing on the perfection of the building 
of these two temples. 



TO PEINCE WLADISLATJS, (A Letteb, 1856.) 

" Tous deux, egalement, nous portons des couronnes, 
Mais, roi, je les recois, poete, tu les donnes." 

Charles XII. to the Poet Ronsard. 

Kikgs wear crowns, poets distribute them; kings, 
like the lacqueys of the Lord Mayor, wear their 
livery on certain days, though they mostly lie in 
chests. The crowns distributed by poets encircle 
the brows of heroes with immortal glory. It is in 
vain for kings, arrayed in royal robes, to receive 
the incense of flattery, if no poet be inspired by 
their virtues to celebrate them in song. The adu- 
lation and the perfume of the incense remain with 
the regal robe, and not with him who wears it, 
and change their object without altering their 
meaningless form. Oblivion and decay are the 



64 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

well-merited fate of the kings unmentioned in song. 
The echo of their names dies away like the rushing 
of the wind when the storm is over, and new ones 
sound in their stead, " Le roi est mort ; vive le roi." 

Bouse thyself, prince ; show us deeds that are 
signs of life— deeds which we and the world may 
acknowledge as worthy of Poland, which may cause 
the chords of the poet's lyre to vibrate. The harp 
of Poland hangs to-day untuned on the willows ; 
the hands of our minstrels droop despairingly ; they 
have sung long enough of the sunshine of the past, 
of the gloom of the present. Give them, then, young 
scion of Poland, a new theme for their songs, other- 
wise our fathers will become impatient in their 
graves ; their ears ungladdened by Polish melodies 
and the brilliancy of the deeds of their sons, no 
more visible to them through their closed eyelids. 
The hearts of the dead yearn to hear the footsteps 
of their children upon the paths which, during life, 
they have trod. 

Our greatest poet, Miczkiewicz, a venerable old 
man, eighty years of age, went to the Levant, in 
order, since there was no longer any fighting Poland, 
collectively, of which to sing, to celebrate the valour 
of individuals among her children. Death tore the 
lyre from his hand before his voice had become 
hoarse from disappointment. The heir to his poet- 



LETTEE TO PRINCE WLADISLATTS. 65 

renown, unknown to himself, and to Poland also, 
waits for some hope of a response ere he raises his 
voice for the song of the resurrection of our father- 
land ; his eye rests upon the Polish youth, while 
his hand weaves garlands for the future. Rise 
then, oh youthful prince ; thine is the duty to raise 
the pall of Poland — the fame of the deed shall also 
be thine. The hand which is stretched towards 
that pall is extended also towards the hero's wreath 
and the monarch's crown. Dear to the Poles are 
the historic names of their noblemen ; doubly dear 
when individual deeds add new leaves to the book 
of Polish renown, proving to their fatherland that 
the children have inherited, not only their names, 
but also the virtues which procured for their ances- 
tors the charter of nobility, and first among these 
virtues that of patriotism. The way to the Polish 
throne lies open : high birth makes it easier, 
but only virtue leads to it. The tocsin of Poland 
has long sounded her hard fate. Our beloved 
mother will perish in the conflagration of misfor- 
tune. "Whoever will rescue her let them rush 
into the flames. Dash into the storm all ye whose 
hearts beat with filial affection . " Quand meme," 
the motto of thy family, Prince Wladislaus, is the 
motto suited to the times : let our fatherland hear 
it, and if thy heart is as undaunted as thy family 

p 



66 SKETCHES OE THE POLISH MIND. 

motto, the martyr's palm will appear no less glo- 
rious to thee than the warrior's wreath. Grasp the 
sword of thy ancestors, give proof in the service of 
thy country that thou art not only a prince, but 
also a Pole. Poland and Polish poets wait for 
deeds. Their reward is song and the Polish crown ! 



A WELCOME TO THE DAUGHTER OF COLONEL 
LACH-SZYRMA INTO DEVONPORT * 

" der wahrheit o der gute, 
Rein wie Perlen echt wie gold 
der Sitten Anmuth ; Bluhte 
Stets im weiblichen gemiithe 
Jeder Jugend Reitz so hold." 

Das hohe Lied (Burger). 

Daughter of a Pole whose name is precious, an 
unknown countryman sends thee a greeting from 
afar! The pinions of thy youth bear traces of 
the dew of tears, the pain of parting has already 
roughly crumbled the leaves of the scarcely-opened 
volume of thy life. God's hand smooths them to- 
day with the joy of reunion. May my words not 

* Lach-Szyrma ; celebrated as the leader of the students of 
Warsaw in 1830, whose academical professor he was, and well 
known as an author. The return of his daughter referred to, 
was from Posen, whither she was sent to receive a Polish 
education. 



TO THE DAUGHTER OF LACH-SZYRMA. 67 

be lost in the thousand cordial questionings and 
exclamations of delight from the dear friends who 
welcome thee ! May my greeting serve as a rhyme 
to the hymn sung to thee by the friends of thy 
father, whose brother, though a younger one as to 
country, arms, and pen, I am proud to be, whose 
friendship has so often afforded me consolation. 
With tears in my eyes as I think of my far 
distant orphan, whose features have already disap- 
peared from my memory and are engraved on my 
heart alone, I bless thee, daughter of my friend ! 
May the God of the Piasts strengthen hope, love 
and faith in thy heart, and clothe it in the national 
dress of the hearts of our mothers, courage, modesty, 
and gentleness; ever the ornaments, unchanged 
by years, of Polish women. May the hand of our 
Heavenly Father place upon thy head a crown 
woven of the virtues of thy parents. Thus adorned, 
view thyself in the mirror of thy father's deeds, 
that as he to us, so his child to ours, may alike 
be an example. Eich indeed will be thy dowry, if 
God's goodness permits thee in this mirror to 
recognize thyself. 

" The Times," that calumniator, has said, " There 
are no Poles now." These words have a Russian 
sound ; God will not permit them to find an echo 
in truly English hearts. Poland lives for us, and 

f 2 



68 SKETCHES OE THE POLISH MIND. 

will rise again for the world, as the seed-corn 
sown in the earth springs up in the form of ears, 
quickened by the rays of the sun. The hearts 
of the Polish women are our guarantee for this. 
As long as these beat nationally there will be no 
want of Polish virtues and swords in our father- 
land. Oh, women of Poland, priestesses of the 
holy tomb where lies your mother in apparent 
death, be watchful ; for so long as the veil of Polish 
feelings is not torn away from you, it is in vain 
that the voices of the Czar, of the Emperor, and 
of bribed authors, attempt to announce to the 
world the last breath of your country! Poland's 
sighs of dreary woe, and the death-rattle of her 
sons, prove that she and that they have not ceased 
to exist. Te priestesses of our temple of hope, 
cease not to sing to your brothers of virtue and of 
fame : your song will raise the palls from the three 
coffins of Poland. Daughter of Szyrma, over thy 
young head in thought I spread my hands; the 
blessing of the crippled warrior, of the banished 
patriot, consecrate thee as a priestess to the resur- 
rection of Poland. 

May God's blessing strengthen this my con- 
secration ! 



HLW YORK, H. Y, 
LIBRAE 



69 



PART III. 
MUSINGS OF AN EXILE. 



TO ENGLAND. 

England, thou j oiliest of gentlemen old, 

With fireside comforts secured from the cold. 

Sitting at ease in thy cushioned retreat, 

On the warm cosy fender thy fur-slippered feet, 

For a moment turn round, from the window look out, 

And see how thy neighbours are freezing without. 

To each of thy household who industry shows, 

Or who cleverly conquers the ills that oppose, 

A luxurious armchair by thy hearth is assigned ; 

And only the stupid and idly inclined, 

Their place unappointed, repose on the floor — 

No hardship ! with carpet 'tis well covered o'er. 

But glance from the window a moment I pray, 

And look at thy neighbours who pass by the way. 

Who of them loves his land and his God above all, 

From virtue's bright path whom no ills can appal ? 

When the leafless trees shiver, and winter winds blow, 

From their warm fire-sides are thrust out in the snow : 

In thy happy household a shame and a crime 

May poverty be, but with us 'tis a sign 

Of honour unspotted, — that virtue sublime. 

Oh England, look out then, and for thy own weal, 

If not for thy neighbours', some sympathy feel ; 



70 SKETCHES OE THE POLISH MIND. 

Lest when from thy hearth thou art fated to stray, 
Thou should find none but strangers and foes round 

thy way. 
Eespectable gentleman, jolly and stout, 
Wheel round thy arm-chair, for a moment look out. 



PEAYEE. 

A little bird on soaring wing, 

Once asked his comrade of the spring, 

" Why do the fishes dumbly gaze 

Upward toward the sun's bright blaze ? " 

" Sister birdie," 'tis thus, was the warbled reply : 

" They praise our great Maker, who dwells o'er the 

sky." 
" How so ! in song we praise and pray : 
Which worships best then, we or they ? " 
" Both equally well, if the look and the tone 
From the depths of our heart in sincerity come." 
" Ah, sister birdie, can that be true 1 
Crimson methinks might as well be blue." 
Then o'er the sky the rainbow arched sublime, 
" In worship all my varied colours shine," 
In silence as in song is tribute giveu, 
Prayer is the lifting of the soul to heaven. 



MUSINGS OF AN EXILE. 71 

OYEE THE STYX— A Fable. 

Poor Mother Poland lay in deathlike sleep, 

When first her luckless son beheld the light, 

The sound of fetters was his childhood's song, 

And in misfortune's cradle he was rocked ; 

For cruel neighbours round his mother met, 

And would have murdered her with deadly stab, 

But strife and envy still the blow delayed, 

Yet beat her heart within a bleeding breast, 

Her child looked on and wept in helpless woe. 

When childhood's morn gave place to noon of youth, 

A stirring drama drew him from his home ; 

Around him rose the fireworks wild of war, 

And fountains leaped into their lurid light, — 

Fountains of tears, through black-palled vistas seen ; 

Far wandering in a foreign land he heard 

The discord of his mother's foes was o'er, 

And in their cruel purpose they were one. 

What was this purpose 1 Eighteous Heaven, thou 

kuow'st ; 
The blood of Poland crieth from the ground ! 
Yes, the remorseless demons, wearied out 
Of cavilling o'er their victim's prostrate form, 
Eesolved to lay her living in the grave. 
At first he stood aghast ; then starting, vowed 
That, even should the destined sepulchre 
Be filled with corpses both of friends and foes, 
His mother never should be thither borne. 
But first he sought, in legendary lore, 



72 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

And 'mid the mighty poets of old Borne, 

The golden faith and love which should adorn 

The polished steel of valour, and should make 

Self-sacrifice itself an easy thing. 

He deemed their splendour had but to reflect 

The grace and virtue that within them shone, 

And nations would obey the signal given, 

And flock to aid him in his noble cause. 

In vain ! the world had grown too selfish far 

For Ovid's tones of woe to wake response ; 

And e'en the eloquence of Cicero, 

Pleading for justice, liberty and truth, 

Was far outsounded by the chink of gold. 

And by experience bitter soon he learns 

That in the time of Orpheus stones and wood 

Had more of heart than now debased mankind. 

TJie very memory of the time was dead 

When proud Sarmatia earned the sacred name, 

" Bulwark of Christendom" from foreign foes. 

E'en should a Brutus rise, his death were vain, — 

Too numerous the Caesars are, and too secure their reign 

In wild despair he wandered aimless on, 
And came at length where rolled the Stygian flood. 
Then spake to him Despair, with whispering voice : 
" Telemachus to seek his father sought 
A dreary region ; thither take thy way, 
Help for thy mother there may yet be found." 
The call he followed without further thought, 
Sprang in the sable waves and reached the shore 
His woe -struck visage awed e'en Cerberus, 
Who, grimly silent, suffered him to pass. 



MUSINGS OE AN EXILE. 73 

The Pole would fain have stormed the gates of Hell, 
But their vast lock of falsehood and of crime 
Welded so firm together, held him back. 
The enchanted plants* which bolt and bar remove 
He sought in vain, but yet remembered well 
Words of most potent magic, which had power 
To dry sad tears, yet thaw the freezing heart ; 
And these he wrote upon the frowning gates : 
" God is with us ; not yet is Poland lost." 
As neath his hand the letters swiftly grew, 
And radiant gleamed from out the horrid arch, 
The lock burst open with infernal clang, 
And Satan glared from out the open door, 
Disguised as eagle black with double head, 
The Papal crown upon his mocking brows ; 
Monsters of every kind composed his train, 
" Away !" he cried ; " here has the name of God 
A different meaning, here is hope unknown ; 
He who seeks help from us must both deny." 

From his wild dream of Hell the Pole awoke, 
But clearly with his waking thoughts perceived 
The blasphemy and folly of despair ; 
The black-winged dragon's help he'd sought to gain, 
For rescue of the snow-white eagle ; there, 
Where feelings were not, looked for sympathy. 
As well might Heaven in depths of Hell be found. 
Then in a feeling new of patient trust, 
With upward gazing eye, he murmured low, 
u My country is not lost ; God is with us : 
Whilst Poland hopes in Him she cannot die." 

* Relating to a Polish legend of plants haying the power of opening locks. 



74 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 



MY DAKLING. 

Malt and hops are evil crops, 

And tobacco too ; 
For the one involves the other, 
And, in fact, is its twin brother, — 

Is the sentence true ? 
List ye judges, strict and stern, 
Ye have something yet to learn ; 
Here you'll find a contradiction : 
That I drink not is no fiction, 

Yet my pipe's my darling. 

Eound me still the world at will, 
Morning, noon and eve, 

Sighs and grumbles and complains 

Of its many cares and pains ; 
Ne'er its voice I heed. 

Vain lamentings I despise, 

Work has left no time for sig* 

Thus I honour industry. 

Smoking on so cheerily ; 

For my pipe's my darling. 

With hatred, strife and envy rife, 
Smokes the earth's volcano, 
And deep cabals, revenges dire, 
And anger's fiercely-raging fire 
Consume the heart and brain, oh. 



MUSINGS Or AN EXILE. 75 

But patience is my dearest prize, 
On her I fix my wearied eyes, 
Hope in my God my watchword high ; 
And thus I smoke on merrily, 
For my pipe's my darling. 

Some praise me high, and some decry, — 

One thing ne'er pleases all. 
Why don't you leave me then alone ? 
For useless is the varied tone 

Of clamour and of call. 
Still toward the heavens I look for cheer, 
With smoke and heart for escort there ; 
To idle chatter ne'er reply, 
But smoke away right merrily ; 

For my pipe's my darling. 

The despots' toils and serpent wiles * 

The blood of Poland shed ; 
But days of justice yet shall come, 
On earth at length 'twill find a home, 

And rear its sacred head. 
The world will smoke the pipe of peace, 
And in old age her feuds shall cease ; 
This hope my drooping heart sustains, 
And as I smoke, fresh force it gains ; 

For my pipe's my darling. 

When freezes death the smoker's breath, 
Life's tobacco fails, 



76 SKETCHES OE THE POLISH MIKD. 

When the body's pipe is cold, 
Lay it then beneath the mould, 

Heaven the soul will hail. 
Love, her perfume then will breathe, 
And her clouds of incense wreathe. 
Till that happy time shall come, 
I will merrily smoke on ; 

For my pipe's my darling. 



TO MY MOTHER. 

Ce ase not, mother dear, thy strains ; 

Song can soothe thy yearnings deep, 
And the cradle hymn of prayer 

Lulls thy restless cares to sleep. 
P raver the widow's song should be ; 
None, save God, can comfort thee. 

Solace sweet thy songs impart ; 

Though in exile far I pine, 
I can hear them in my heart, 

Love defying space and time. 
And thus dreaming, even now 
C ools thy kiss my fevered brow. 

F etters hard are on us laid, 

Austria's ban of death is on me, 
L inks of sickness and of pain 

Daily closer draw around thee ; 
Y et shall death dissolve our chains, 
Bearing us where freedom reigns. 



MUSINGS OE ATS" EXILE. 77 

Tears of yearning flow in silence, 

Songs of woe have muffled tones, 
And the anguish of the parted, 

Many a deep'ning furrow owns ; 
Yet in darkness Faith can sing, 
Flutter Hope her broken wing. 

Pray with heart believing, still 

Cease not, mother dear, thy song ; 
Prayer and hymn and tears ascend 

To the heaven for which we long, 
And shall healing balsam bring 
From the realms of endless spring. 

Not alone amid the ruins 

Doth thy trembling voice arise, 
No ! thy exiled son, toward Poland 

Turning still his heart and eyes, 
Fondly echoes every tone, 
Seen and heard by God alone. 

When the mists of death shall dim 

That dear eye, my morning star 
E'en in setting may not beam 

On thy child still wand'ring far ; 
Thou wilt call on me in vain, 
All unanswered breathe my nan e. 

Darling mother, worn and aged, 

Widowed, orphaned, childless, all ; 
Though thy joys seem dead and withered, 

Shrouded deep in sorrow's pall ; 



78 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

Flowers which seem to perish here, 
Bloom in Heaven's eternal sphere ; 
Soon this truth thou'lt learn above. 
Yonder in the realms of love. 



NOT AS AT HOME. 

Bound me grow the purple violets, 

Sounds the cuckoo's voice ; 
Spring, with all its glad foretellings, 

Bids my soul rejoice. 

Vainly all ; my thoughts have wandered 

To my own dear home ; 
There the violet's breath is sweeter, 

And the cuckoo's tone. 

Every note of woodland warbler 

Woke a deeper thrill, 
And the thickly clustering fiowrets 

With bright hopes could fill. 

Stars with golden eyes are glancing 

From the heavens above, 
And the moon in silver letters 

Writes her tale of love. 

Night with breezy whisperings soothing 

Lulls to gentle rest 
Mother Earth, with all her children 

Folded on her breast. 



MUSINGS OF AN EXILE. 79 

But my restless heart flies homeward, 

Where it oft, at night, 
Melted, at the song of moonbeams, 

Into dreams of light. 

Here, with notes of desolation 

Sigh the breezes lone, 
And the moon shines pale and chilly, 

Not as there, at home. 

Many a greeting kind I meet with, 

Friends are round my way ; 
Yet their tones recall the dearer 

Voices far away. 

In my own beloved Poland 

Kindred hearts were mine, 
Round whom clung my fond affection 

Like the tendril'd vine. 

There no scanty words were needed 

Mutual thoughts to tell ; 
Hearts that I had won and treasured 

Understood me well. 

Oft, when on the churchyard gazing, 

From my chamber lone, 
I can see friends, widows, orphans 

Bound a loved one's tomb. 



80 SKETCHES OE THE POLISH HIKD. 

And, it may be, when these yearnings 
Snap the exile's weakening chain, 

Bending o'er his grave some kindly 
Heart may feel a touch of pain. 

But if death had gently laid me 

'Neath my country's sod, 
Bound my lowly bed the weeping 

Mourners would have trod. 

There a mother's love untiring 
To my grave would cling ; 

There my child would linger kneeling, 
And fresh garlands bring. 

Cease, my harp, thy sad lamenting ; 

No one heeds thy tone ; 
Oh this weary land of exile, 

How unlike my home ! 



THE EAGLE AND THE PABBOT. 

"Der liebe Gott hat vershiedene Kostganger." 

A German Proverb. 

A certain parrot set himself to ponder ; 

The thing was new, no marvel he should blunder, 

His shallow thoughts were soon dissolved in wonder. 

He tried to solve this knotty problem, why 
The eagle spent his time in soaring high, 
When all his wants on earth he could supply. 



MUSINGS OF AK EXILE. 81 

At length, by means of claws and crooked beak, 
He wrote a letter — 'twas a foolish freak ; 
But to the king of birds he dared not speak : 

Yes, dared not ; so assumed a lofty tone — 
As many a coward ere his time has done, 
To hide the fear they are ashamed to own. 

" Thou foolish bird," 'twas thus the letter ran, 
• On naked rocks, far from the haunts of man, 
Scarce finding aught to feed thyself and clan, 

" See what a bright and happy lot is mine, 
In golden cage I plume my feathers fine, 
In crystal cups for me clear waters shine. 

" Perched on thy cliff, beside the roaring sea, 
Famished thou art, for all thy majesty ; 
While kindly human hands provide for me." 

With condescending looks the eagle read; 
|Then, bowing graciously his royal head, 
Flew to the parrot's cage, and thus he said : — 

I" Good cheer and gold comprise thy heart's desire ; 
rBut I delight in tempest and in fire, 
Through cloud and sunshine ceaselessly aspire. 

" Eat dainties in thy gilded prison here, 

I famish, but enjoy a loftier sphere, 

And, perched on freedom's heights, I know not fear. 



82 SKETCHES OE THE POLISH MIND. 

Eagles and parrots still on earth are found — 
Those seek the sun, these grovel on the ground. 
Give room, by Heaven's decree both sorts abound. 

The arrows of thy scorn may reach to me, 
"When soaring in the clouds of phantasy, 
And my ideal thoughts will reach not thee, 
While in thy cage thou sits contentedly, 
Heaven knows, we do not, wherefore it should be." 



ASK NOT. 

The strength which faith in God imparts 

Is healing sure ; 
The deepest wounds of human hearts, 

This balm can cure. 

Though weary long the process be, 

The patient soul 
With Heaven's own bandage shall be bound ; 

God makes it whole. 

But ah, the sympathy of earth, 

Though soft its hand, 
With ill-timed touch can oft remove 

The healing band. 

Though cramps by friction may be cured, 

Yet, ere they close, 
The heart-wounds by bereavement made 

Must have repose. 



MUSINGS OE AN EXILE. 83 

Then of my welfare ask me not, 

Kind friend, I pray ; 
Nor question of the loved and lost, 

Far, far away. 

The exile never can be well, — 

Life's dreams are gone : 
Health is a state unknown to him, 

Who dwells alone. 



FEAGMENT. 

Knowest thou, my child, the flood of yearning, 

The storm of feelings in the heart, 
When, all thy soul within thee burning, 

Lies writhing 'neath a secret smart ? 
Vainly for breath and language seeking 

O'erfilled with feelings no words can tell, 
As the billows that dash on the rock, wild shrieking, 

To burst their fetters vainly swell. 
Hope shines afar with a pale starlight, 

And memory gushes like tear-drops bright ; 

A heartwarm melody fain would'st thou sing, 

But the words are frozen and dry in their spring. 

Thus must it rage in a dumb one's breast, 

When calls for language its fluttering guest, 

To answer his loved one's greeting blest ; 

Thus must he feel, who in the tomb 

Awakes, when trance to life gives room, 

g2 



84 SKETCHES OE THE POLISH MIND. 

Oh, happy he, who, with poet's power, 

Can paint the anguish of such an hour," 

Can soothe with a song his spirit's moan, 

And dash from the soul the threat'ning stone. 

But oh, if nature then deny 

The hero's right to victory ; 

If waves on waves of yearning roll, 

Uncharmed by music from the soul ; 

The spirit worn in vain contends, 

Its longing wild in madness ends. 

MISUNDEESTANDING WOUNDS THE HEAET. 

" You're a flatterer," said a lady, knowing not the 

wound inflicted, 
Knowing not the thoughtless sentence to the listener's 

heart had pierced. 
He alone can be a flatterer, who is simple and conceited, 
And believes his victim, like him, of a superficial mould. 
If I say the flower is perfumed, or " of Eden 'tis an 

earnest," 
Is it not the self-same meaning, nothing but a choice of 

language 1 
When in words I clothe my feelings, and make audible 

my musings, 
Is it flattery, when in grateful admiration oft I speak ? 
Stars that deck the mighty heavens, flowers that fill the 

earth with beauty, 
Children with their guileless faces, and their new and 

happy spirits — 



MUSINGS OE AN EXILE. 85 

These are all my chosen favourites ; here I seek my life's 

elixir. 
Flattery ! when the words of Schiller with my heart 

and lips I echo — 
u Honour be to women, twining with our earthly life 

heaven's roses," 
I but speak of those who, rightly comprehending their 

vocation. 
Lead alike the king and shepherd, all who live within 

their influence, 
Like the guiding star of morning, to where virtue 

cradled lies. 
To a stranger you're indulgent, you forgive his foreign 

accent, 
Why not then his choice of language, of his country, 

too, a part ] 
Those who love and seek for flattery soonest fancy they 

detect it, 
E'en in voice of upright friendship listen for the honeyed 

tones. 
Look into your own hearts deeper, thus you'll learn the 

hearts of others : 
All alike are mirrors, varied but by difference of re- 
flection. 
Hard it is for one accustomed to the privilege of 

friendship 
To repress the gush of feeling and his deeper thoughts 

conceal 1 ; 
Harder still misapprehended by his very friends to be. 



86 SKETCHES OE THE POLISH MIND. 



A FABEWELL WOED TO THE READER 

" J'ai lu dans quelque en droit qu'un meunier et son fils 
Allaient vendre leur ane un certain jour de foire. 

Les gens en parleront, n'en doutez nullement." 

La Fontaine. 

A SCENE TAKEN EBOM LIEE. 

Someone. — " Holloa ! why this is prose in the 
MS. : in the prospectus it is called ' a song.' " 

Author. — " Tes ; a song in the original Polish, 
but translated into English prose." 

Someone. — " Is it so ? I did not understand 
that; poetry translated into prose is very tire- 
some. 3 ' 

Someone else. — " A song ! dear me ! Shakespeare 
all at once ! Tou had better content yourself with 
a simple sketch of events in prose." 

Author. — " Tou at least I had hoped would not 
have reproached me with presumption. Tou have 
often had opportunities of convincing yourself that 
I am perfectly aware of the imperfection of my 
knowledge of your language. But here there is no 
question of poetic skill. As stated in the prospec- 
tus, it is a prose translation into English." 

Someone. — " Indeed ! I never observed it. Show 



A FABEWELL WOBD. Of 

me the prospectus. Oh ! it's something, I suppose, 
of this sort : Manchester thoughts on Peace, like 
Elihu Burritt's Peace Papers for the People." 

Author. — " No ! they are my own thoughts on 
war and peace, combined with sketches of the 
character of my countrymen, that, from a repre- 
sentation of their faults and prejudices, their virtues 
and predilections may be better imagined." 

Someone else. — " This letter to Prince Wladislaus 
won't do. The prospectus says ' there is no ex- 
citement for war.' " 

Author. — "Yes! no excitement for the reader, 
to whom our fate is a clear proof of the fearful 
consequences of war ; but to the Prince, I address 
language that depicts the feelings of the Polish 
exiles generally. These are mostly of a warlike 
nature — another evil of war — and I cannot call 
black white." 

Someone. — "Apropos, you have sent no pro- 
spectuses to your friends in S . They will feel 

hurt. In S The Friend is not read, and it will 

look as though you shut out of your circle of friends 
those who are most warmly interested for you. I 
advise you to send circulars to all your friends. 

Author. — " I have resolved to send to none, with 
the exception of two of my acquaintances living in 
parts where my name is unknown. To these I 



88 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

have written, asking them to give their guarantee 
that I am a genuine and sincere person, and no 
speculator in ideas — that the reader will find truth 
in my book. Besides, my opening of a subscrip- 
tion list is only an advertisement, and no invitation. 
I have not the means of printing at a risk ; and 
though I have this book much at heart, yet, as I 
should not be warranted in incurring unnecessary 
expenses, I cannot print it till I know whether 
a work on Poland is likely to find readers. This is 
the only object of the subscription list. I thought 
I said so expressly in my letter to the Editor of The 
Friend" 

Someone, — " Tou are mistaken ; there is no diffe- 
rence between literary advertisements and others? 
they are always invitations to customers, just in 
the same way as ' Hollo way's Pills,' 'Presh Oysters,' 
Ac, Ac." 

Author. — " This last remark of your's would in- 
duce me at once to abandon my project, were I not 
convinced that my acquaintances know me too well 
and think too nobly to fall into such a misappre- 
hension. I think my friends, as well as the public, 
will add their names to the list, if the title interests 
them, but not unless. The prospectus shows the 
reader what he will find in the book. I have a 
definite object in publishing this work; such as 



A FAKE WELL WORD. 89 

know trie, as well as those who read with any depth 
of feeling, will easily guess it. My sense of duty 
in doing my utmost for the attainment of this object 
makes it easier for me to persist in the undertaking, 
in spite of the many hindrances and grievances, 
and the contradictory advice, which even at its 
commencement wound and mortify me. I know 
well that, as Groethe says, ' Eines paszt sich nicht 
fur Alle.' Many will find in my book much to 
object to, but the real seeker after truth will 
look upon the faults of his fellow-men with indul- 
gence ; and it is to gain the sympathy of such, for 
the cause of my fatherland, that my heart thirsts. 
For the opinion of those who are guided by party 
spirit I care not ; yet I know but too well that 
feelings which almost rend the heart of the writer 
may fail to cause that of the reader even to beat 
more quickly, and subjects which are of the highest 
interests to the one — forming, indeed, the question 
of his life — may be met by the other with the yawn 
of ennui. But, threadbare and old-fashioned as 
Poland has become in the eyes of England, even 
the phlegmatic diplomatist, and those who give 
themselves out to be philanthropists from want of 
employment, must see from these pale sketches 
that in ancient times, as well as in their later days 
of political humiliation, in prosperity as in adver- 



90 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

sity, the Poles were and are a nation whose first 
and deepest feelings are, faith in God, a high sense 
of honour, and obedience to the call of duty ; that 
egotism and falseness in diplomacy are impossi- 
bilities in our national character ; that the heart of 
a true Pole beats high with valour, and readiness 
to serve, and if need be to die in the cause of 
freedom ; that a people actuated by such sentiments 
cannot easily be crushed ; that Poland may become 
either the foundation of peace or the ever-threaten- 
ing thunderbolt of war, according as Europe treats 
her with justice or with cruelty — according as she 
can look upon England as a sister, or as a slave 
sold to Russia. 

If only in some English hearts these thoughts 
have been aroused, then will the storm of criticism 
and the bullets of party spirit and egotism whistle 
unheeded over my head. 

" Si totus fractus illabatur orbis 
Impavidum ferient ruinse." — Horace, 



N£W YORK, H. Y 
LIBRARY 



APPENDIX I. 91 



HISTOEICAL NOTES COMPILED BY THE 
AUTHOE. 



REMAKES ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF AUSTRIA 
AND RUSSIA. 

AUSTRIA. 

Austria is precisely the contrast of England, 
cunning in her foreign policy, and with a weak and 
tyrannical government at home ; bankrupt as to 
her finances, without freedom of the press, and with 
her trade and industry cramped and stunted. The 
notorious falseness and cowardice of her diplo- 
macy ; Eussian protection aided by the mean con- 
spiracies of Eome, and systematically-introduced 
division amongst her different nationalities — these 
are the rotten threads which hold together this 
variegated harlequin-coat, the mish-mash of coun- 
tries which constitute Austria. 

Of all the various lands crippled by the yoke of 
Austria, Hungary was the only one which for 
centuries was attached to her government. Of her 
own free will she made choice of the House of 



92 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

Austria to place upon her throne, preserved it 
under Maria Teresa from inevitable ruin, and in 
consequence became still more attached to it. She 
was also the only Austrian domain that had a con- 
stitution. Therefore Elihu Burritt was quite right 
in saying, that in 1848 Austria had no other object 
than that of assimilating Hungary with the rest of 
her dominions, and thus introducing uniformity 
into her system of government. But he was in 
error when he maintained that she had a right to 
do so — that it was politic, christian, or serviceable 
to civilization ; for the Austrian emperors took the 
oath to maintain the constitution inviolate, and 
only under this condition did they become Kings 
of Hungary. By the constitution, Hungary's trade, 
press, educational establishments, the exercises of 
religion, and the administration of the law, were 
made free. This freedom kept up the kindly feel- 
ing of the country toward Austria. Now, no one 
can maintain that perjury is christian or just ; that 
despotism is more serviceable to civilization than a 
constitutional government ; that it could be good 
policy to exchange the love of the Hungarian nation 
for Bussian protection. The Constitution of Hun- 
gary had one leading fault, which arose from its 
antiquity, and the spirit of the times in which its 
existence commenced, namely, that all the burdens 



APPENDIX I. 93 

of the state were borne by those who were not of 
the nobility. But the progress of civilization 
pointed out their error to the Hungarian nobility ; 
and in 1848, at the same time that the noblemen of 
Gralicia voluntarily proclaimed their subjects* in- 
dependent and free of vassalage, those of Hungary 
declared themselves ready to share the burdens of 
the state with their fellow-citizens of the middle 
and lower classes. Austria permitted this change, 
and the Emperor Ferdinand took the oath to the 
new Constitution, and ordered the Hungarian army 
to do the same. In a few months he required 
them to break this oath ; the entire army refused to 
become perjurers, and thus broke out the Hungarian 
war for freedom, which ended with the treachery of 
Grorgei. The traitor obtained a promise from 
Austria and Russia that the lives of his fellow- 
citizens and former comrades should be spared. 
How far Austria kept her word the following list 
will show; the names cited comprise only those 
which are known to me with certainty. 

* The connection between the nobles and their subjects 
partook somewhat of the character of the patriarchal times. 



94 SKETCHES OE THE POLISH MIND. 

MEMOEIAL TABLE of the POLITICAL MARTYRS 
EXECUTED in HUNGARY in the YEARS 1849-50. 

EDITED BY Atf OFFICER OF THE HUNGARIAN ARMY. 

Count Ludwig Batthyany (pronounced Bott- 
jahnj) de Nemet Ujvar ; born in Presburg ; 40 years 
of age ; Catholic ; married, and father of three chil- 
dren; Chamberlain; Hereditary Supreme Count 
of the county of Eisenburg ; Minister ; President. 
Shot at Pesth, 6th October, 1849. The Count 
breathed out his great soul with the words, " Elhjen 
o hoso !" — Our fatherland for ever ! 

Ladislaus Csanyi (pronounced Tschahnji), de 
Csan ; born in the county Zalaer ; 52 years of age ; 
Catholic ; unmarried ; chief commissary and consul. 
Hanged at Pesth, October 10, 1849. Csanyi kissed 
the rope which released him from a life that had no 
more value for him, since he could not see his 
country happy. 

Ltjdwig Attlich ; born at Presburg ; 57 years 
of age ; Catholic ; unmarried ; major-general and 
minister of war ; knight of the Military Order of 
Merit, 2nd class. Hanged at Arad, 6th October, 
1849. Even to death he remained true to his 
motto — " Be moderate in prosperity, great in mis- 
fortune." As the first sufferer in the bloody 
tragedy of the 6th of October, at Arad, he mounted 



APPENDIX I. 95 

the steps to the scaffold with the cheerful calmness 
of a sage ; while, during his various judicial exa- 
minatious, no other answer was to be wrung from 
him but this : " At the command of my king, I 
have taken the oath to the constitution, and will 
remain true to it to my latest breath." 

After the three ministers who were thus sacri- 
ficed to a cruel policy, came four of the best 
statesmen of Hungary. 

Baeon Sigmtjnd Peeenyi (pronounced Perehnji) , 
de Ardo, of the county Beregh ; 66 years of age ; 
Catholic ; married, and father of one child ; member 
of the association for the defence of the country ; 
Vice-President of the Hungarian House of Peers. 
Hanged at Pesth, 23rd October, 1849. 

Baeon Johakn Jeszenik (pronounced Jesse- 
nahk), of Presburg: 49 years of age; Evangelical 
Lutheran; Supreme Count and member of the 
Hungarian House of Peers ; Government Commis- 
sary for the county Presburg and Neutra. Hanged 
at Pesth, 10th October, 1849. 

Emmeeich Szacsvat (pronounced Szottschuvi), 
de Kis-Erok, of the county of Bibar ; 31 years of 
age ; unmarried ; Delegate and Secretary of the 
Hungarian Diet. Hanged at Pesth, 23rd October, 
1849. 

Emanuel Cseeutus (pronounced Tscherrujusch) 



96 SKETCHES OE THE POLISH MIND. 

de Kokoszi, of the county of Gomor ; 41 years of 
age ; Catholic ; married ; formerly State Councillor 
of the Hungarian Exchequer, afterwards Ministerial 
Councillor of the Hungarian [Finance Department. 
Hanged at Pesth, 23rd October, 1849. 

Here follow the thirteen distinguished generals 
who surrendered at discretion to the Russians, and 
were by them delivered over to the Austrians. 

Ernst Kis (pronounced Kisch), Von Ellemer 
and Ittebe, of the county Temesch ; 49 years of 
age ; Catholic ; a widower, without children ; Eield 
Marshal, Lieutenant and Commanding General 
of Hungary; knight of the Royal Hanoverian 
Guelphic Order, 1st class; Commander of the 
Hungarian Military Order of Merit ; Knight of 
the Papal Order of Christ. Shot at Arad, 6th 
October, 1849. Kis died calmly and cheerfully as 
a martyr to the faith he had sworn to his fatherland. 
His immense estates, worth several millions, as also 
those of Batthyany and all his fellow-sufferers, were 
confiscated. 

Johann Damjanich (pronounced Damjanitsch) 9 
the conqueror of Raizen, called the Hungarian 
"Wellington ; 35 years of age ; Greek Church ; 
married, without family ; Major- General ; Com- 
mander of the 3rd division of the army ; afterwards 
Fortress-Commandant in Arad. After the general 



APPENDIX I. 97 

surrender, he received an order from the Austrian 
government to deliver up the stronghold. At the 
first demand he answered laconically, " The for- 
tress cannot parley:" and at the second, "The 
fortress will surrender to a single Russian Cossack, 
but will resist to the last man the entire strength 
of the Austrian army." As his broken leg would 
not allow of his walking, he was taken in a carriage 
to the place of execution. Here he was obliged to 
watch for four hours the execution of his comrades ; 
till at length his turn coming, he met death with 
calm cheerfulness. " How singular," he remarked, 
" that I, always the first against my enemies, should 
now close the hero-procession of my brothers in 
arms." 

Joseph Von Nagy-Sandob (pronounced Nottej- 
Schalmdor), of the county of Bihar, called the 
Murat of the Hungarian army ; 35 years of age ; 
Catholic; unmarried; Major-general and Commander 
of the 1st division of the army; Knight of the 
Hungarian Military Order of Merit, 2nd class. 
Hanged at Arad, 6th October, 1849. Nagy-Sandor 
stormed Buda, as is well known, and, according to 
Grorgei, fought against a tenfold superiority of Rus- 
sians at Debreczin, on the 2nd of August, 1849. 
At once a patriot and a warrior, he bore his fate 
with calmness and determination. With a firm 



98 SKETCHES OP THE POLISH MIND. 

tread he mounted the steps to the gallows, and 

then cried to the Austrians the ominous words 

" Hodie mihi eras tibi." 

Count Charles Yecsey, (pronounced "Weht- 

schey), de Hainacsko, of the country of Pesth; 

Catholic ; married \ Royal Imperial Chamberlain ; 

Major-general, and Commander of the Cernirungs 

corps of Temesvar. Hanged at Arad, 6th October, 

1849. 
Count CHAELEsLEiFiNaEN-"W"ESTEBBOUEG,Lord 

of Ilbenstadt and Erdstadt ; born at Ilbenstadt, in 

the electorate of Hesse; 30 years of age; Evan- 
gelical Lutheran ; married, and father of one child ; 
Major-general, and Commander of the 3rd division 
of the army ; Knight of the Hungarian Military 
Order of Merit, 2nd class. Hanged at Arad, 6th 
of October. Leiningen, the scion of one of the 
oldest families of Germany, which was allied by 
marriage with the royal house of England, and had 
rendered many services to the Austrian empire, 
was, through his Hungarian wife, EliseVon Sissanyi, 
and his possessions in Hungary, attached to the 
land ; and beside this, he belonged to an Hungarian 
regiment bearing the name of his uncle, the Eoyal 
Imperial Eield-marshal Lieutenant Augustus Count 
Leiningen-Westerbourg. At the outbreak of the 
war in Hungary, he was captain on furlough, and he 



APPENDIX I. 99 

did not hesitate to join himself to the cause of his 
new fatherland, which he ever after espoused with 
zeal. After many battles fought with valour, he 
was promoted to the rank of general as commander 
of the 3rd division of the army. He gave battle to 
the Eussian Lieutenant- General Grabbe, on the 
26th of July, 1849, at Gessthely, where he gave to 
the enemy proofs, not only of his bravery, but 
also of his generosity. He ordered 300 wounded 
Eussians who were lying on the field of battle, 
(amongst them ten officers), to have their wounds 
dressed, refreshed them with food and drink, and 
then sent them back into the Eussian camp. Hence 
this noble cavalier could not understand how it was 
that they gave him and his comrades no breakfast 
on the morning of the dreadful 6th of October. A 
brave Austrian officer, who had heard of the gene- 
rosity of the count, offered him some wine from his 
field-flask, which he declined taking, with thanks ; 
in order, as he said, that the corps ranged at the 
execution, might not think General Leiningen was 
obliged to seek courage in stimulants. 

Eewest Polt (Knight of Poltemberg) ; born at 
Vienna, 36 years of age ; Catholic ; married ; father 
of three children ; Major-general, and Commander 
S>f the 7th division of the army ; Knight of the 
Military Order of merit, 2nd class. Hanged at 

h 2 



100 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

Arad, 6th October, 1849. Poltemberg was bound 
to Hungary by nothing but his oath. As captain of 
the horse in the 3rd regiment of Hussars of the 
Grand Duke Alexander he marched to Hungary 
with his regiment in 1848. Before his departure, 
Poltemberg requested to be transferred to another 
regiment, as he felt no inclination to enter into 
any engagements toward Hungary. The Minister 
of War, Royal Imperial P. Z. M. Count Bailette of 
La Tour, commanded him to march to Hungary 
according to orders. He obeyed, put himself under 
the Hungarian Ministry, and took the oath of faith- 
fulness to the Hungarian Constitution, at the 
command of Count Lamberg, P. M. L. 

Aristid Von Dessewey, (pronouncedDeschehfl), 
Lord of Csernek and Tared, of the county of Abuj- 
vars; 47 years of age; Evangelical Lutheran ; general 
of cavalry ; Knight of the Hungarian Order of 
Merit, 3rd class. Shot at Arad, 6th October, 1849. 
Dessewfy on his way to Turkey was soon overtaken 
by a courier bearing a despatch from his former 
companion in arms, P. M. L. Prince Francis 
Lichtenstein, who begged him to return and trust 
his fate to the mercy of the Emperor of Austria. 
Dessewfy had good reason to feel attractions home- 
ward. Scarcely a month before he had married a 
beautiful girl, and the honeymoon was not yet over, 



APPENDIX I. 101 

so lie accepted Lichtenstein's invitation. He and 
Colonel Lazar did not surrender to the Russians, 
but to the Austrians, and so they both received a 
pardon — namely, powder and shot. 

Johann Von Lenky, Lord of Lenke and Zador- 
falva ; 35 years of age ; Evangelical Helvetian ; 
unmarried; general of cavalry. As captain of 
cavalry in the 6th regiment of Hussars of the 
King of Wurtemberg, he fought his way from 
G-alicia to Hungary in the autumn of 1848, with a 
division of brave men, and came to the help of his 
threatened fatherland. He was condemned to the 
gallows, but escaped this unjust punishment by 
means of poison. He was found on the morning 
of the 6th October, stretched dead upon his couch. 

Ignatius Toeok de Nemes Cso, of the county 
of Pesth, 54 years of age ; Catholic ; unmarried ; 
major-general, and director of fortifications; Knight 
of the Hungarian Order of Merit, 2nd class. 
Hanged at Arad, 6th October, 1849. Torok was a 
pupil of the Academy for Engineers in Vienna. 
Grown gray in the service of the Austrian army, 
he was, during the years 1838-46, major in the Hun- 
garian noble life-guard of the king, and professor 
of the Genie- Wissenschaften in Vienna, where, 
amongst many others famed in the Hungarian war, 
Generals Gorgei and Klapka were his scholars. The 



102 SKETCHES OE THE POLISH MIND. 

outbreak of the war found him lieutenant-colonel 
of the royal Imperial Genie-corps and local director 
of fortifications in the fortress of Komorn. 

G-eorg Lahner, of the county of Sohl ; 52 years 
of age ; Catholic ; married ; father of one child ; 
major-general, inspector of arms and equipments ; 
Knight of the Hungarian Order of Merit, 3rd 
class. Hanged at Arad, 6th October, 1849. This 
experienced veteran served under Austria, against 
Prance, in the years 1813-15, and at the outbreak 
of the Servian revolution in Hungary, in 1848, he 
became major of the 3rd battalion of the 33rd 
Hungarian regiment of Infantry. In the Hun- 
garian Siid-Armee, where he was always to be seen 
in the foremost ranks of the brave, as chief of the 
arming department, through his knowledge and 
zeal he rendered extraordinary services to his 
fatherland, to which he clung with body and 
soul. 

Carl Knezich (pronounced Knehsitsch), of the 
county of Varasdin ; 41 years of age ; Catholic ; 
married ; father of two children ; major-general 
and commander of a division of the army, for a 
while commander of the 3rd division ; Knight of 
the Hungarian Order of Merit, 3rd class. Hanged 
at Arad, 6th October, 1849. 

Joseph Schweidel, of the county of Bacs ; 58 



APPENDIX I. 103 

years of age ; Catholic ; married ; father of five 
children; military town-commandant of Pesth, 
afterwards of Szegedin. Shot at Arad, 6fch Octo- 
ber, 1849. Schweidel served thirty years in the 
Austrian army with distinction. "When the soldiers 
commanded to execute him shot twice, and missed 
each time, the general cried to them, while he tore 
the bandage from his eyes and looked steadfastly 
at their pale faces, " Tou are cowards : you have not 
courage to aim at the heart of a warrior grown 
grey in service !" At tike third volley he was stretched 
dead on the ground. 

Ltjdwig- Kazinczy (pronounced Kosintzi), de 
Szephalon, of the county of Zemplin ; 29 years of 
age; Evangelical Helvetian; unmarried; major- 
general, and commandant of a division of the 
army; Knight of the Hungarian Military Order 
of Merit, 3rd class. Shot at Arad, 25th October, 
1849. Kazinczy was the youngest general in the 
army, and the last who surrendered to the Russians. 
He, with his 1200 men, laid down their arms before 
the Eussian Lieutenant- General Grotenhjelm, 
in Transylvania, on the 25th May, 1849, after 
the latter had assured him, through his adjutant, 
Timaschof, that the general might have unbounded 
confidence in the generosity of the Czar, both for 
himself and his corps. 



104 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

We have now to make mention of sixteen of the 
most able of the staff and superior officers. 

Wilhelm Lazae (pronounced Lahsar), de Etska, 
of the county Torontal ; 34 years of age ; Catholic ; 
married, and father of three children ; colonel and 
commandant of the division of an army ; Knight 
of the Hungarian Order of Merit. Shot the 6th 
October, 1849. 

Noebeet Oemay, of Doberczan, in Bohemia; 
36 years of age ; Evangelical Lutheran ; married ; 
colonel and commandant o^the first Hungarian 
chasseur corps, Eliigel - adjutant of Governor 
Kossuth. Hanged at Arad, 21st August, 1849. 

Mieczyslaw Peince "Woeonieczki, de Sku- 
rowa, of the circle of Jaslaw, in Gralicia ; 25 years 
of age ; Catholic ; unmarried ; colonel and com- 
mandant of a band of chasseurs named after 
him. Hanged at Pesth, 20th October, 1849. 
Woronieczki, the bold stormer of the batteries 
of Perlass, was, with his countryman, Captain 
Abancourt, taken prisoner by the Austrians in the 
battle of Szoreg, 5th August, 1849, and both were 
led off to Pesth. The youth and beauty of the 
Prince awoke much compassion for him ; and when 
the news spread suddenly in Pesth that the Prince 
was to be hanged, ladies of the highest rank en- 
treated Haynau to delay the execution, because they 



APPENDIX I. 105 

wished to entreat the Emperor to pardon the youth- 
ful Prince, and hoped to obtain the favour. Haynau 
was inexorable. 

Baron Ladislaus Mednyanszky (pronounced 
Mednjahnski), de Medgyes, of the county of Trent- 
schin ; 29 years of age ; Catholic ; married ; lieut.- 
colonel, local director of fortifications of the fortress 
of Leopoldstadt. Hanged at Presburg, 5th June, 
1849. Mednyanszky belonged to the oldest noble 
family of the country, his uncle was the President 
of the Exchequer, Aloys Trentschin Mednyanski, 
most honourably known abroad through his valu- 
able historical writings. At the surrender of the 
fortress of Leopoldstadt to the Austrian Field- 
Marshal Simonich, on the 2nd February, 1849, 
Mednyanski, with the artillery- commandant Captain 
Grruber, were taken prisoners, and both were taken 
to Presburg. When General of the Ordnance 
Baron Haynau undertook the chief command in 
Hungary, he made his debut as executioner with the 
two prisoners of war Mednyanszky and Grruber. 
They could not at least be accused of the crime with 
which the other prisoners of war were reproached, 
namely, that they had remained in the service 
of the Hungarian government after it had declared 
itself independent of the House of Hapsburg 
Lothringen ; for in February, 1849, no one thought 



106 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

of a declaration of independence. This followed on 
the 14th April, as an answer to the Austrian Con- 
stitution chartered on the 4th of March. 

Petek Gikon, of Aix-la-Chapelle, Rhenish 
Prussia ; 51 years of age ; Evangelical Helvetian ; 
Lieut.-Commander of the German Legion in Hun- 
gary. Hanged at Pesth, 20th October, 1849. 
Giron, during the revolution of October, was sta- 
tioned in Vienna, where he fought bravely as cap- 
tain of an arheiter-compagnie. After the taking of 
Vienna he fled to Hungary, and there organized a 
German legion, to which he was appointed com- 
mandant by the Hungarian government. During 
the general laying down of arms at Vilagos, he was 
taken prisoner at Grosswardein, led to Pesth, 
condemned to death, and executed with the two 
Poles, Woronieczki and Abancourt. Smoking a 
cigar, Giron went with his two companions in 
suffering to the place of execution, where he in- 
spired the two young Poles with courage. Arrived 
at the steps of the scaffold, he had a slight skirmish 
with the executioner as the latter commanded him 
to take off his tabard. Giron said he had worn it 
in honour, and should die more suitably in it ; that 
it should not disturb the executioner in his opera- 
tions was his affair, not Giron' s. Already he had 
the cord around his neck, and smiled cheerfully 



APPENDIX I. 



107 



upon his already deceased comrade in arms 
(Woronieczki) beside him. " GKron showed how a 
man ought to die," said the inhabitants. Socrates 
himself did not drain the cup of poison so cou- 
rageously as Giron suffered martyrdom. 

Ltjdwig Hattk, of Vienna; 51 years of age; 
Catholic ; lieutenant-colonel, stadtholder of "Wer- 
schetz. Hanged at Arad, 31st of February, 1850. 
Hauk, royal imperial lieutenant-colonel, was in the 
summer of 1848 co-editor of the Viennese Constitu- 
tion Journal, and during the October Revolu- 
tion in Vienna, major and commandant of the 
mobile-corps. After the taking of Vienna, he, 
like Giron, fled to Hungary, and there stayed 
awhile with the Kossuth family, where he was 
warmly welcomed. In the spring of 1849 he en- 
rolled himself in the Transylvanian army, under 
Bern, and thence came in this capacity to Wirshetz. 

Vitaltjs Soll, of Marburg in Steiermark ; 24 
years of age; Catholic; unmarried; major and com- 
mandant of the Hungarian Tyrolese Sharpshooter 
Battalion. Shot at Ofen, 30th January, 1850. 
Soil made the campaign of the Austrians in Italy in 
the summer of 1848, among the Tyrolese volunteers, 
and distinguished himself at the storming of the 
plateaus of Eivoli so highly, that he was promoted 
by F. M. Eadetzski to the rank of lieutenant. After 



108 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

the truce with Charles Albert was concluded, he 
returned to Hungary, his former home. He felt 
himself urged by strong impulse to take part in 
the cause of Hungary against Austria, and called 
upon his countrymen to do the same. We saw 
him at the defence of Marchbriicke against the 
Austrians, fighting like a lion in the brigade 
Kosstolanyi of G-orgei's army. At the entrance of 
"Windischgratz into Pesth, on 5th January, 1849, 
he, with his adjutant, Edward Pol, were taken pri- 
soners, and both were condemned to death; but the 
major's sentence was commuted from hanging to 
shooting, and the adjutant's from shooting to eight 
years' imprisonment in irons. 

Kkight Julius Henley Von Schwannenheim, 
of the county of Temesch; 23 years of age; Catholic; 
unmarried ; major and commandent of a Honved 
battalion. Shot at Temesvar, 20th August, 1849. 

Samuel Muemann, of the county of Odenburg ; 
32 years of age ; Evangelical Lutheran ; unmarried ; 
major and commandant of a Honved battalion. Shot 
at Temesvar, 25th August, 1849. 

Here follow the names of the remaining mar- 
tyrs :— 



Andreas Tamas 
Philtpp Gruber 
Carl Abancourt 



Giovanni Baldini 
Theodor Novak 
Julius Almasy 



APPENDIX II. 



109 



Ladislatjs Sandor 
Alexander Von Petocz 
Johann Bazga 

JOHANN GoNSECZEY 
NlKOLAUS STREIT 

David MeszAros 
Andreas Kantsur 
Georg Fulop 
Joseph Mezey 
Franz Trekszler 
Mathias Gabel 
Joseph Sttft 
Emerich Istok 
Joseph T6th 
Frauz Forster 
Joseph Schweitzer 
Ignatz Pallik 
Adolph Yojtics 
Daniel Christian Kurtz 
Johan Markus 
Wolfgang Bencze 



Ignatz Uitz 
Sigmund Csomo 
Michael Kutzko 
Franz Havelka 
Andreas Hubner 
Georg Koczo 
Felix Sla^wsbli 
Paul Gancs 
Michael Yarga 
Emerich Fekete 
Joseph Barta 
Stephen Berczek 
Johann Zehnmarkt 
Johann Santa 
Greg or Ocskay 
Georg Dudo 
Emerich Raffay 
Mathias Szvelka 
Michael B ottos 
Georg Boncsak 
Joseph Bugyik, 



APPENDIX II. 



RUSSIA. 

"Infandum o regina jubes renovare dolorem." — Virgil. 

The new Czar has his father's old flatterers, and 
has added fresh ones of his own. His words are 
collected as pearls, and treasured in Europe's airy- 
castle, in hope of a lasting peace, without having 



110 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

established the kingdom of the gospel there. The 
friends of Bussia, friends of brute force, who carry 
their hearts in their pockets, and who would fain 
make pharisaical hypocrisy pass for religion ; who 
condemn the slave-laws of America, although they 
are introduced and kept up by people of their own 
stamp, since they help the Czar to introduce similar 
laws into Europe ; false prophets, who blasphe- 
mously proclaim the new Czar as the Messiah of 
peace ; fools who seek the kingdom of the Czar, 
instead of the kingdom of God, and yet believe that 
all other things shall be added unto them ; whose 
mouths water when they pronounce the name of 
the Czar ; these, with their long ears wide open 
when the Czar speaks, and their little contracted 
hearts absorbed in themselves, may yet possibly 
have failed to overhear the repeated declaration of 
Alexander II. that he will sacredly (?) carry on the 
work begun by his father in Poland — that he will 
tread in the footsteps of Nicholas. 

Science is light and egotism darkness : where the 
latter reigns, the former has not penetrated. There- 
fore for egotists, who, though doubtless well ac- 
quainted with the biographies of Pereira, Palmer, 
and Louis Napoleon, have never troubled themselves 
to reflect on the philosophy of the history of nations, 
or turned over the pages telling of the oppression 



APPENDIX II. Ill 

of their brothers in the Christian religion ; for the 
champions of darkness and the worshippers of the 
golden calf in Eussia, I write chronological extracts 
from the legislating ukases for Poland, 1831-45 as 
explanatory of the effect upon civilized Europe 
which the fulfilment of the intentions of the Czar 
to tread in the footsteps of his father would involve. 
I know well that their hearts, dressed in Russian 
leather, will not be softened even by the tears of 
millions ; yet this exposition shall appear in the 
English language, that we Poles may not be one 
day met with the reproach, that we have never 
even laid our case before England — the only repre- 
sentative of freedom, justice and religion ; of the 
love of the nation to its monarch, and of royal 
hearts that are Christian and paternal ones also : 
the only one, I say, whose voice is audible in the 
Diet of the Pandemonium of Europe ; for such an 
accusation was made against Kossuth with regard 
to Hungary. Do not say, ye truly English hearts, 
" the explanation is superfluous : our sympathies 
have long been with the Poles, and only geogra- 
phical obstacles have prevented our giving proof of 
it. Our Queen, descended from a house chosen by 
ourselves, and which through her has become doubly 
dear to us, has a truly English heart, which beats 
in unison with those of her people ; but the welfare 
of her own land is her first duty ; diplomatic hin- 



112 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

drances keep her back. "When the right time comes, 
Poland will see the true significance of England. 
Should it not come, who then could think of re- 
proaching us, since our hearts are overflowing with 
sympathy ? " Permit me to reply : I feel that you 
speak from your hearts. England has, in one respect 
at least, given Poland a proof of friendship ; since 
she has not followed the example of France in 
poisoning our blood with false hopes, for purely 
egotistical aims. As to your Queen, I love her as 
though I had breathed English air from my child- 
hood ; but let me remind you that the Apostles 
had many geographical and diplomatic difficulties in 
the way of their propagation of the gospel. To 
England, in my opinion, is committed the mission 
of the Apostles throughout Europe ; theirs it is to 
extend the reign of the gospel. As to reproaches, 
in a sympathizing kingdom — at the meeting of the 
Eriends of Poland in 1856, I heard the reproach 
that a Pole who forges heavier chains for Poland 
presides at the Paris Conferences. "Well might 
scorn have closed my lips, since the President of 
the Paris Conferences only obtained a Polish 
name because his mother forgot the virtue oi 
Polish women, but never had a Polish heart, and 
does not deserve even the name of a renegade, be- 
cause he never was a Pole. One meets with re- 
proaches oftener than with proofs of sympathy. 



APPENDIX II. 113 

Alas ! I have no right to assume in England the 
voice of one crying in the wilderness of Europe 
" Prepare the way of the Lord." But, thanks be to 
Crod, that as a free Englishman, and as a patriotic 
Pole, it is not only my right, but also my duty, to 
speak from my heart ; and therefore here follow the 
chronological extracts : — 

1831. — August. — The Constitution of Poland is 
abrogated, and the manuscript of the original act 
is sent to Russia. The House of Parliament in 
"Warsaw shall be converted into barracks. The 
Museum of the Eine Arts of "Warsaw is removed to 
Petersburg. Under penalty of rigorous imprison- 
ment, politics are banished from conversation in 
private families. The decree condemning the Prince 
Roman Sanguszko, to service for life in the mines 
of Siberia, for his Polish ideas, is laid before the 
Emperor.* 

November 3rd. — A commission for disposing of 
those who took part in the war of independence is 
established, and empowered to give sentences of 
exile, confiscation, and death.f 

* The Emperor added to this decree with his own hand 
" He shall perform the whole of the journey on foot." 

+ The commission requested the Emperor to supply them 
with directive rules. He gave his answer in two words — - 
" Speedy and severe." 

I 



114 SKETCHES OE THE POLISH MIND. 

The University of "Warsaw and the higher schools 
of Poland are abolished. Five thousand noble 
families are banished to the Caucasus. 

1832. — January 19^.— The establishment for 
cadets in Kasilz is abolished. 

'February \§ih. — All the orphans in Poland be- 
tween the age of six and seventeen, whose fathers 
have not appointed any guardians for them, shall 
be sent into the military colonies, and divided into 
battalions. 

February 14<th.—~ The constitution given to Poland 
by the Congress of Vienna, in 1815,* is abrogated. 
It is declared a Eussian province. Coronation in 
Warsaw is abolished. The Polish army shall be 
distributed among the Eussian regiments. Russians 
shall be placed in all public offices. 

February 15th. — The public library, the Museum, 
and the Gallery of Steel Engravings, shall be re- 
moved to Petersburg. The church revenues of 
202 monasteries are confiscated and distributed 
among Russians." t 

April 6th. — The library of the Society of the 
Eriends of Science is removed to Petersburg. Eresh 

* England was one of the conferring parties. 

+ This was in defiance of the provision of their founder, 
that, in case of the dissolution of the monasteries, the revenues 
should be returned to his family. 



APPENDIX II. 115 

names are added to the list of those sentenced to 
banishment. 

May 1st. — The University of "Wilna shall be 
closed. 

June. — The use of the Polish language is for- 
bidden throughout Lithuania in all judicial trans- 
actions. 

July 17th. — Some church revenues are confis- 
cated. 

August 20tJi. — Of all marriages between persons 
belonging to the Muscovite Church, or professing 
other religions, only those are valid which are cele- 
brated in the presence of a priest of the Greek 
Church. The offspring of mixed marriages shall be 
educated under the Muscovite ritual. 

November 30M. — Further confiscation of church 
revenues. Polish money called in and declared not 
current. 

1833. — May 27th. — A new tax shall be levied on 
Warsaw for the building of a citadel, for the main- 
tenance of law and order in the city. 

June 24th. — A schismatic bishop shall be esta- 
blished in Polock. 

October 26th.— The cloister of Poczajow, and its 
celebrated riches and estates, shall be given over to 
the schismatic bishop. 

i2 



116 SKETCHES OP THE POLISH MIND. 

November 9th. — The gymnasium in Krzemienice 
shall be closed. 

December 12th. — Many noble families, as well as 
those of the middle classes, are banished. 

1834. — January 16th. — Those of the nobility of 
Lithuania who cannot prove their charter of no- 
bility, shall sell their estates by auction within 
three years. 

April 17th. — All Russian subjects travelling 
abroad, not returning at the order of the Govern- 
ment, render themselves liable to the confiscation 
of their estates. 

April 22nd. — A schismatic bishop shall be estab- 
lished in Warsaw. 

May 20th. — The rate of taxation shall be in- 
creased, and a contribution of 10,000,000 of Polish 
florin's levied on Warsaw. 

June 2%th. — The estates of 460 noblemen in the 
district of Wilno are confiscated. 

August 7th. — The estates of 149 of the nobility 
in Wilna are confiscated. 

September 16th. — The first series of sentences 
passed by the Russian judicial commission, on the 
Poles engaged in the war of 1831 is ratified : 240 
persons to be hanged, 9 beheaded, and 7 condemned 
to suffer from ten to twenty years imprisonment. 



APPENDIX II. 117 

November 4dh. — No petitions for amnesty will be 
received. Those who, in defiance of the prohibition 
of amnesty, venture into the country and surrender 
at discretion, shall be treated as high traitors. The 
remaining estates of the Polish exiles shall be con- 
fiscated. 

1835. — The royal directions as to the public 
educational establishments of the kingdom of Poland 
are published in the French language, under the 
title, " Expose des motifs, qui ont necessite un 
supplement aux ordonances relatives a la discipline 
scolaire." # 

October 16th. — The estates of the emigrants of 
the kingdom of Poland, yielding a yearly income of 
280,000 Polish florins, shall be distributed among 
the Russian generals Rudiger, Greismar, Gorczakow, 
Berg, Dehn, Gillenschmidt, Pankratiew, Nostitz, 

* The following are extracts from this imperial manifesto : — 
" II est n^cessaire que les ecoliers des quatre classes superieures 
de gymnases, soient envisages comme mineures, et que loin d'etre 
exempts de la punition corporelle, ils y soisent soumis avec 
d'autant plus de rigueur, qu'ils sont censes devoir etre raison- 
ables. x\.fin que la manure d'infliger la punition corporelle 
ne soit point arbitraire, et n'entraine apres elle des suites 
nuisibles & la sante, il est interdit de se servir d' autre instru- 
ment, que de verges de bouleau fraiches ou trempees dans l'eau 
les bouts non coupes, la grosseur en doit etre d'un pouce 
environ a l'endroit de la ligature et la longueur d'une aune et 
demie ; il faut frapper a nu. 



118 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MIND. 

Tymofiew, as an imperial gift for the services 
rendered against Poland.* 

December 6th. — All schools of Poland are placed 
under the superintendence of the schismatic clergy. 

1836. — January. — Polish estates, with a yearly 
income of 120,000 florins, are presented to Generals 
]STeihardt, Prasznikow, &c. 

September 10th. — Polish estates, producing an 
annual income of 160,000 florins, presented to the 
Generals Knutz, Siewers, &c. 

December IMh. — Estates, yielding an annual 
income of 95,000 Polish florins, presented to the 
Generals Gersztenzweig, Offenberg, &c. 

March 14ith. — Polish estates, yielding an annual 
income of 58,000 florins, are presented to Generals 
Suchozant, Paton, &c. 

1837. — The sons of Polish noblemen are not 



* October 16th. — The Emperor Nicholas received the deputa- 
tion of the citizens of Warsaw, and, without allowing them to 
speak, dismissed them with the following wOrds, " Avant tout, 
il faut remplir ses devoirs, vous avez a choisir entre deux partis, 
ou persister dans vos illusions d'une Pologne independantes, 
ou vivre tranquillement en sujets soumis a mon gouvernement ; 
si vous persistez a vous obstenir dans vos reves de nationality 
distincte, de Pologne independante, et toute ces chimeres, 
souvenez vous que j'ai fait elever ici la citadelle pour detruir 
Varsovie a la moindre emeute, et une fois detruite, certes ce ne 
sera pas moi qui la rebatirais." 



APPENDIX II. 119 

eligible for any public office in Poland, unless they 
have served five years in the interior of Eussia. 

March 7th. — The various divisions of the king- 
dom of Poland, which have hitherto borne the Polish 
name Woyewadszaffen, shall henceforward be 
divided and named like all the other Eussian 
provinces. 

January 9th. — The University of Kijow shall be 
closed for a year, 

June. — General Szypow, director of the public 
educational affairs, gives notice that all the youth 
under tuition, without exception, are to consider 
the Eussian language as their chief study. Chil- 
dren who refuse to obey this command are to 
receive corporal punishment, and their parents 
shall be fined for the first refusal 50 roubles, for 
the second, 100 roubles, for the third, 300 roubles. 
In case of a fourth refusal, both parents and chil- 
dren to be declared rebels, and dealt with accord- 
ingly. All private persons, without exception, are 
prohibited from providing a tutor for their children 
who is not furnished with a government testimonial 
of having passed an examination in the Eussian 
language ; the children receiving private instruction, 
must every month go through an examination in 
the Eussian language, by a teacher of government 
appointment. 



120 SKETCHES OE THE POLISH MIND. 

By the end of 1838, the Emperor Nicholas had 
presented to his generals Polish estates to the 
amount of 21,960,000 florins of yearly income. 
The estates confiscated in the eastern provinces 
were valued at 93,000,000 roubles. 

No one who is not thoroughly conversant with 
the Russian language shall be admitted to any 
office whatsoever. 

August. — General Szypow declares, in the name 
of the Emperor, — It is illegal for the citizens and 
peasants of both sexes throughout the kingdom of 
Poland to wear their national dress ; all without 
exception are prohibited from wearing square caps, 
peacock's feathers, and Cracow sashes. The 
wearing of any articles in crimson, blue, or white 
(except linen which may be of the last-mentioned 
colour), is also prohibited. The citizens and 
peasants of Poland are commanded to provide 
themselves with dark-coloured clothes of a Eussian 
cut. The women are permitted to dress in green 
and scarlet. Those who refuse to comply with 
this regulation, shall, without regard to sex or age, 
be punished by flogging. 

1839— April 6th.— The clergy of the "United 
Greek Church are declared henceforward one with 
the Imperial Eussian Church. # 

* From this ukase 400,000 in Lithuania alone were compelled 
to become schismatics. 



APPENDIX II. 121 

May. — The Pope has canonized the deceased 
Uniciski ; but since, according to the laws of Russia, 
one without title cannot be canonized, the Emperor 
elevates to the rank of a nobleman the deceased 
Uniciski. 

June. — General Szypow prohibits the daily 
prayer preceding the lectures in the schools. 

1840 — March 21st. — Those who accept any other 
ritual than that of the Imperial Russian Church, 
render themselves liable to the confiscation of their 
estates. 

June 25th. — The Lithuanian statutes are abo- 
lished. 

July 6th. — The recruiting in the Russian pro- 
vinces shall be in the proportion of six to 1000 ; in 
the kingdom of Poland eleven in 1000. # 

1841. — December 25th. — Church revenues are 
confiscated. 

1842.— May 19th.— The Polish citizens elevated 
to the rank of nobility are permitted, after three 
generations, to purchase land. 

1844. — September 10th. — All Poles, without ex- 
ception, are forbidden to cross the Russian frontier 
before the completion of their twenty-fifth year. 

* In the year 1855, there were three levies ; the first com- 
posed of nine ; the second, fourteen ; the third, twenty-one, in 
every 1000. 



122 SKETCHES OF THE POLISH MOD. 

Those who have attained this age may apply for 
half-yearly passports ; for every half-year a tax of 
100 roubles for each person. 

1845. — June 22. — A family who harbours a de- 
serter must supply two recruits. Should there be 
no individual in the family eligible for military 
service, the head of the said family shall be flogged 
and banished to Siberia.* 

These are the prints which the foot of Nicholas, 
now mouldering in the grave, has left upon the 
ground of Poland, and which his son has repeatedly 
promised to follow. He will keep this promise 
better than the articles of the Paris Conferences. 
May his admirers never hear in their own houses 
footsteps which will leave similar traces behind ! 

* The peasant Mielniczuk was decorated by the Emperor, 
because with his own hands he delivered up his son, a deserter, 
to the gensd'armes. 



THE END. 



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